


Magic Provides

by DarkJediQueen



Series: Magic, Darkness, and Love [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Cross Over, Dumbledore Bashing, EWE, First Time, Minor Character Death, Multi, No One Is Safe From Bashing, Not Canon Compliant, Romance, Soulmates, Threesome, Use of Love Potions, Weasley Bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-20 19:23:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 11
Words: 100,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15541275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Draco Malfoy grew up in the Wizarding World, he trusts in magic more than he ever should. He knew the line that magic provided to those who were in need. He just never thought that when he was promised something for betraying his father by Magic herself, it would be this. The world was still reeling from the catastrophic war that had just ended. Would it survive the knowledge that Draco was promised not only one Soulmate but two? Would Draco survive a relationship with two-thirds of the Golden Trio: Harry Potter and Hermione Granger?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> **Year** : 1991-2000
> 
>  **Spoilers** : Entire Book Series & TV Show
> 
>  **Notes** : This is being posted as is after a quick read through. All mistakes are my own and pointing them is going to get you nothing.
> 
>  **Warnings** : Use of Love Potions, Minor Character Death,
> 
>  **Beta** : Grammarly

Banner made by rivermoon1970

# Prologue

_July 31, 1991_

The Record Keeper didn't leave his hall where the Book was very often, but sometimes he felt the urge to walk around Diagon Alley. When he did magic obscured him to where no one recognised him for who he was. If someone came to the book to see if they had a soulmate, the arch would not let him through, and he would be called back. Apparition was allowed for the Record Keeper no matter where he was. Magic provided for those who did her will, and it was never more evident than in the Record Keeper for the Book of Bound Souls.

The voice of an excited child drew the Record Keeper's eyes toward where a young girl was chatting with a resident of the Alley. As the girl talked her magical aura flared a little, and the Record Keeper was intrigued. He walked toward where she was and stayed near her. There was something very shiny about her magical aura, and the Record Keeper knew precisely what that meant. Outside of the Hall, the Record Keeper was the only one who could see that part of magical auras, and it meant that she had a soulmate.

There was a fifty percent chance that her soulmate was going to be at school with her and she and he or she and the witch would grow slowly into love. It would be lovely, and it would be sweet. The longer that he looked at her, the more that the Record Keeper knew about her. She was Muggle-born with a robust magical core. He had seen one like her many years before, and her death had been a sharp pain in the Record Keeper's heart for a long time. He knew those who were destined for greatness. It was an effect of being drenched in magic like he was all of the time. He was the only one who could see it that he knew of but it was still humbling.

After so long the pureness of magic still made the Record Keeper feel humble and sometimes like he was unworthy of magic. The Muggle-born child laughed at something the other person said, and her aura flared again, and this time the Record Keeper saw the reason why he was out and about in the Alley that day. There was a purple tinge to the edge of the aura and that only meant a single thing.

Turning around to look, the Record Keeper tried to see if anyone else's aura was flaring in response but there was none. He frowned because he hoped that she would find her two mates that day. Magic would be kinder to the three of them if they met before they went to Hogwarts, their love would grow with each class shared and each meal that was eaten together. They would be fast friends and inseparable by the time they hit their third year, yet the other two were not there.

Almost an hour of wandering around later, the sound of a loud speaking man drew the Record Keeper's eyes over to where that man was. The Record Keeper stayed where he was as he watched a half-giant walk with a young boy who looked like he needed help in many ways. The boy's clothes were oversized to the point of it being stupid, yet no witches or wizards on the Alley looked twice at him. The Record Keeper frowned at that because it was profoundly stupid of them. Magical Britain was becoming too insular, and he knew it, but he could do nothing about it.

The boy seemed happy to be with the half-giant, but the Record Keeper wondered where his parents were. Even if the child were a Muggle-born, his parents would be allowed to be with him. When the boy stopped at one point to look around, the Record Keeper gasped, and it drew a few eyes to him, but he waved those eyes off and held up a hand before taking it to his mouth to fake sucking the blood off of it. The eyes turned away, and the Record Keeper followed the child from a discrete distance. The Record Keeper knew those eyes, he knew them well, as well as that hair. The child was the spitting image of his father with his mother's eyes, and that explained why he was with someone who was not his parents but surely whoever had been raising him would have come with him?

The boy's aura flared when he got excited about something, and there was the purple. The Record Keeper turned to find the Muggle-born girl, but she was gone from his sight. Magical triads were rare enough that there was no way that the two of them weren't going to start to bond long before they hit their third year. Following them around, the Record Keeper was shocked that the boy was like he was. This was not the child of his favourite bonded pair in the last years. He had their blood, and he had their magic, but he was not as he should have been.

Stopping when he saw another familiar face, the Record Keeper watched a set of parents with their son. When he turned back, the other boy was gone. The Record Keeper cursed himself before focusing on the Pure-blood family. The son looked stern, and there was unhappiness on his face as he looked around. He was looking for someone and as he got more and more upset that he couldn't find him his magical aura flared.

The Record Keeper nearly fainted when he realised the full extent of why he had been drawn to the alley that day. A triad was going to be formed at Hogwarts in the coming years as the three children that he saw around the Alley came together. A Pure-blood, a Half-blood, and a Muggle-born coming together as a triad was going to be the talk of the British magical world for a long time to come.

_September 19, 1996_

The Record Keeper stayed out front the entire day and only went inside the room with the book when someone came in but given that it was school time he wasn't sure if who he was waiting on would come or not. There were allowances for children at Hogwarts who wanted a trip to the Book. It didn't happen often, but it was better to allow them to come with a professor from the school than for them to sneak there and possibly injure themselves.

The end of the school day came and went, and the Record Keeper was getting more and more upset as the one he wanted never came. When darkness fell, he knew that she was not coming to him and that made him sad. He walked to his bedroom and laid down, wondering what was keeping her from him.

_June 5, 1997_

The Record Keeper stayed inside the room with the Book because he was a guarantee that the young man was going to show up. It was a Pure-blood tradition to come on the day of their seventeenth birthday to see if they had a soulmate or not. The rest of the custom was to show up after lunch but before dinner, so that one did not seem eager but also, so that one did not burden the Record Keeper with working late into the day.

It was a game that the Record Keeper, no matter who he was never told them was stupid as he did not feel tired and no matter what he never stopped working.

Lunch came and went, and so did dinner, and for a few minutes, the Record Keeper thought about going out to see if the young man was too scared to enter on his own and was in the atrium or even out on the sidewalk. When night fell, he stepped out into the atrium, but there was no one. Outside the Alley was full of the late night shoppers who worked all day. There was no sight of white blond hair anywhere.

There was something horrible going on, but he had no way to prove any of it, and that made him mad.

_July 31, 1997_

It was the last chance, and the Record Keeper knew that, if the Half-blood didn't show up then none of them was going to and that meant that things were worse than even the papers said. That things were worse than what Magic was whispering to him. With the sweeping changes that were everywhere, the regular guards for the book were gone and instead it was a group of Goblin guards who made sure that the Record Keeper and the Book were safe.

No war, no matter the leader, had ever breached the hall where the Book was. Even those who sought to change the world never touched the book with ill intent. Not after Magic herself burned an entire army down when it marched on her halls hundreds of years before. This war was no different, no one was coming for him and his book.

The triad had gone horribly wrong, the Record Keeper thought as time ticked on and turned into August. If they had bonded like they should have, they would have sought out the book to confirm what their magic was telling them, even if they waited for the youngest of the three of turn seventeen.

Magic was going to burn the world, and the Record Keeper was going to sit back and watch it happen.

_October 9, 1999_

The Record Keeper heard the doors outside open and looked at the magical time display that was above the arch, it was just after four in the morning, and he had no clue how was arriving to check if they had a soulmate. The Record Keeper stood up from his seat, and he saw the same young man who had come on this day a year before. That confused him because no one else ever came a second time, even after finding out their soulmate. The utter pain on the young man's face was still there when he looked at the book.

"Welcome," the Record Keeper said with a smile on his face. The young man looked at him and pushed back his hood before taking the cloak off. Tucked under an arm was a package of some kind.

"I could not sleep, and I knew that you would be awake at this hour, even if you were sleeping when I entered you would wake up. I brought us breakfast."

"Visiting isn't going to change what is."

"No it's not, but at least you are someone who understands why it hurts even though I have never even spoken to him. You might not have felt the pain, but you understand."

"I do."

"My best friend doesn't, but then he has no wish to visit the book."

"Your best friend?" The Record Keeper asked as he invited the young man back to his room where there was a table set up for eating. The young man set out several pastries and expanded a large thermos of something. When he took the lid off, the Record Keeper could smell excellent coffee with just enough sweetness and cream to it.

"Yes, I tried to get him to come last year on his birthday in June, but he scoffed and told me that he had no soulmate. Draco can be very stubborn."

"Draco?" the Record Keeper asked, and he looked at the young man again. That was not a fact that the Record Keeper knew. He had no clue that the two young lords were friends, but it made sense in a way.

"Draco Malfoy, his father convinced him that he had no mate and that it would be stupid for him to come on his seventeenth birthday like all other Pure-bloods do. I tried again last night to get him to come today, but he refused. He's too busy with his post-Hogwarts schooling."

The Record Keeper wondered at a Pure-blood father keeping their child from what was the tradition. There were ways of seeing soulmates if one was not the Record Keeper and if the Lord had figured out who at least one of his son's soulmates were, he could see that man keeping his son from the Book to make sure that no one ever knew. Family seers were the best way for it to happen. There were some who could see it and wrote down information in family records to say if a future member would or would not have a mate.

If the Record Keeper had the power, he would force the young Lord to come and see what his father denied him but he could not. Coming to see the book had to be willing and free of all compulsion.

"So are you going to keep trying?" the Record Keeper asked.

"Yes. Because one of us deserves a happy ending."

The Record Keeper bit his tongue to keep his words to himself because he knew that volunteering to remove that information from the young man's head would hurt. The young man was the kind to keep a hold of a pain to remind himself that he was alive. His life was nothing but pain, and only his soulmate could remove it, but first, that soulmate had to fix himself.


	2. Chapter 1

# Chapter 1

_October 1, 2000_

"You are the worst being in the world," Draco said looking at the Elf that was standing there with a tray of food in his hand that he wasn't sharing.

"You say that every time. Yet you still come back. You like me calling you stupid and worthless and a waste of Master Spence's air." The Elf was glaring at Draco, but there was a quirk of a smile on his face, but Draco was used to looking for it.

"You are a stingy little creature. I should talk Spencer into giving you clothes." Draco reached out for a strawberry from the plate that was in Qan's hand.

"Master Spence never give Qan clothes. Master Spence be lost without his Qan." Qan glared at Draco, and when he reached for another piece of fruit, he found himself up in the air, hovering above the dining room table. Draco glared at the Elf but he wasn't even looking at Draco, he was eating a piece of pineapple. Draco's stomach growled, and he crossed his arms over his chest. He knew that he looked ridiculous floating in mid-air and glaring at an Elf, but he didn't care.

Draco was subjected to watching Qan eat all of the fruit off of the tray, and when Libby came out with a dish of warm bread for the meal she was preparing for Spencer and him for dinner the smell made Draco's stomach growl again but Libby did not even look up at him. Draco flipped himself over to where he was hanging upside down and tried to reach a roll, but he was pushed up further to where he couldn't even reach them. Draco tried to flip back up, but he was unable. His shirt was slowly sliding up, no down his chest to where anyone who walked in could see his stomach.

"Did you try and steal Qan's dinner again?" Spencer asked when he walked into the dining room with a book in his hand. He was reading it and didn't even look up at Draco. Spencer kept on walking until he was level with his chair. He pulled it out with his free hand and dropped down into it. Spencer looked up only as he set down the book. Spencer smiled, but Draco could see that the smile was not a genuine one. There was something very wrong with Spencer. Draco looked at the book in Spencer's hand and realised that it was one of his father's journals.

Draco had allowed Spencer to ransack the Malfoy Manor for all things Dark before he had cleaned it all out of everything that he didn't want. Of course, Draco wasn't staying there, and neither was his mother. After Lucius Malfoy had died at the hands at Harry Potter when Draco's father had attacked Potter just a month after the Final Battle in the middle of Diagon Alley because Potter had spoken out about Draco and about Draco's mother in the hearings that followed but he had not spoken out about Lucius at all. Instead, Potter had made sure that Lucius had been charged for everything that could be charged for. Lucius had made it out on bail but that had been revoked, and he was being hunted. He had tried to take out Potter in a last-ditch effort to remove what he considered the person who ruined his life.

The Wizarding World had braced for a fall out because everyone knew the turmoil that existed between Draco and Potter, but in that instance, Draco had no ill feelings for Potter. Potter had done what Draco couldn't to save his mother from the horribleness that was his father.

"I did not try and steal the whole dinner, this time," Draco asserted.

"Qan," Spencer said. Spencer didn't even need to look at his Elf or do more than saying his name. Draco was jealous of the relationship that Spencer had with his Elves, but Draco wouldn't sacrifice his mother for it. Draco adored his mother much like Spencer adored his but the mental problems that Diana Reid had were not worth Draco having friends that were true friends.

"Fine, I'll let the asshole down," Qan said. He wiggled his fingers in a mock toward Draco and very quickly Draco started to fall. Draco felt invisible hands grab him and he was lowered gently down to a chair beside Spencer. Qan sighed and looked at Spencer like he was distraught. "Not even let Qan get his jollies off with watching the Pure-blood fall on his face on the table."

"Last time I let it happen Libby bitched because dinner was ruined," Spencer said.

"There is nothing but rolls on the table. She make more of those easy. Qan wanted to see him mussed up." Qan inhaled deeply and exhaled before walking back into the kitchen.

"Must you?" Spencer asked as he finally closed the book and slipped it to the side just seconds before a bowl of soup appeared in front of him as well as a glass of wine. Draco leaned back in his seat after getting himself actually settled in it and a glass of what Muggles called pop appeared in front of him followed by a bowl of soup. Draco would get wine with the second course, but Libby indulged Draco's fascination with the drink that he had fallen in love with when he and Spencer had spent weeks in the American south after Spencer had graduated and Draco had taken his N.E.W.T.s. Draco had come home from America with a love of Dr. Pepper. Spencer would drink it on occasion, but mostly it was Draco.

"It keeps him young," Draco said which was his answer for Spencer questioning the way that Draco antagonised Qan. Draco looked at the journal with a wary eye before he made himself focus on other things.

"How did classes go today?" Spencer turned toward Draco a little in the chair.

"Fine. I still like the classes I am taking now better than I have liked any of the other that I have taken. Mother didn't like me taking the others, but I have a good mind for investments and things, so Spitehex is taking my tutelage well on bank matters. I think that I agree with you, finally, on just taking over the Malfoy holdings and maybe see about setting up a small firm that I would manage alone on doing loans and things to businesses."

"Hmmm. You'll be able to do that in what? Three months?" Spencer asked.

"Yes. The classes will be over then, and I'll be given the ability to manage all of the Malfoy holdings. Father never much cared for doing the work himself and while the Goblins love to make money, they do like it when a Wizard or a Witch actually cared to learn the subtle art that is banking. Spitehex is even discussing allowing me to rent one of the rooms in that new complex they have started to build that has access through a side door into the bank."

"That would be good as many things you would need their help on, transferring funds and such things. I'm glad that you are liking what you are doing finally. When will you make the decision?" Spencer's tone was normal, solid and gentle. Draco didn't know if it was just the way that Spencer was after the war or if there was something more going on with his best friend.

The friendship had started when Spencer had been a first year. Draco had been in his third year at Hogwarts and still near crushed under the weight that was trying to please his father. No one liked Spencer, even Slytherins, even though they were supposed to be all for their House members. The first of the Reid family to ever sort into Slytherin was someone to be feared, even Draco had been shocked when the Sorting Hat had called out Slytherin after three and a half minutes of sitting on Spencer's head.

Spencer had stayed up all that night worrying about what was to come with dawn and the letter from his parents on his sorting. Draco had expected a Howler, but instead, it was a short letter that he read over Spencer's shoulder. If William Reid had been able to disown Spencer for becoming a Slytherin, he would have, but the Reid family honour stopped that from happening.

Draco had never seen anyone who was so scared of his father than Spencer, and it had hurt to see a young man so frightened to go home. Spencer had stayed through all of the holidays even though he missed his mother dearly. When the summer came, Spencer had looked like he was going to his death when he had boarded the train to leave. When the news started around that Spencer had killed William, Draco had not been shocked at all. Draco's father had been all for sending Spencer to Azkaban right up until he came home from the Wizengamot meeting and spent the entire evening drinking and looking green around the gills. Draco hadn't asked his father about it, but he had started to write to Spencer then, making sure that he knew he still had a friend.

Spencer had shared the full memory with Draco when they had got back to school the next year. From that moment on, Draco had stayed firm and hard friends with Spencer in public and in private. Many in Slytherin house saw it as Draco protecting a student who had no parents left, not really and doing his duty by his house but it was so much more than that. Draco was allowed to be himself with Spencer and Spencer could be himself around Draco.

"Draco?" Spencer asked.

Draco looked up from where he had been staring at his soup.

"Sorry. I got a little lost in though there. I will make my decision in a few weeks. " Draco looked at the journal again before he made himself eat. When the soup and the pop were gone, a salad and a glass of wine appeared on the table. Spencer was eating his soup slower than usual. Draco knew that something was wrong and he was sure that it had to do with the journal.

"Your father is fortunate that he was killed before his journals came to light."

"Should we be talking about this while eating?"

"What I want to tell you right now is just confirmation of what you already know."

Draco nodded. He had wanted Spencer to be the one to read the journals for two reasons, Spencer was an Unspeakable and that meant that if there were anything that needed to be taken care of by the government, Spencer would be better to have the news come from than Draco. The second reason was that Spencer read twenty thousand words per minute and that meant that he could get through them a lot quicker than Draco.

Spencer talked throughout all of their dinner about what Spencer had found out. When dessert was finished, and the coffee that Libby had brewed was drunk with the overly sweet dessert, Draco felt like there was more that Spencer wanted to tell him. If Spencer was holding back, it was going to be horrible.

"Your father told you that a Seer in your family line predicted that the grandson of Abraxas would have no soulmate?"

Draco looked at Spencer, and he really wanted to shoot a stinging hex at his friend for that reminder that he had gone through everything that Spencer had, some things better and some things worse only to have no gift for him from Magic because he had no soulmate. Spencer while unable to go and claim his soulmate still had the knowledge that one day he would get his chance at true love.

"Why are you bringing this up?"

"Not because I want to hurt you but because Lucius lied to you."

"What?" Draco stood up, and his chair fell backwards. He looked at Spencer and wanted to know that he was joking. His father had done everything that he did for the Malfoy name and trying to hold on to a world that was slipping away.

Draco felt a poke in his back and turned to see Libby there.

"Take him up to the library if you are going to piss him off."

"Come, Dray," Spencer said as he stood up and nodded at Libby.

Draco followed behind Spencer as they made their way through Reid Manor. Draco had moved in with Spencer when the war ended. Draco had been unable to live in the Malfoy Manor where Voldemort and his cronies had reeked such havoc. Draco's mother had moved into a flat off of Diagon Alley and was quite happy there.

The library was full of books, and there were piles of the journals on the desk that Spencer used to work at. Draco saw that Spencer had some kind of order going on with them. Draco left them alone. The journals that were not needed, Draco wanted to burn when it was all said and done. He would like to do it to the Manor as well when the time was right.

"There was something wrote down about your soulmate in Lucius's journals there was something that I didn't think much of however a second mention, or well first as it was in the journal I was able to figure out was written just after you were born. You've heard the story about how you and your mother were attacked by a man in Diagon Alley, and your father wanted to kill him until it was figured out that he had been dosed by a poison that ate away at his mind?"

"Yes. I was treated at St. Mungo's for it."

"Yes on August first of the year you were born. It seems that when you and your mother were leaving, another family was checking out after the birth of their firstborn. You and that firstborn became quite attached to each other. Later that night your father found the account of the Malfoy Seer."

"What did it say?" Draco asked because there were several children born at the end of July that year but two of them stood out in Draco's mind. Longbottom and Potter.

"That you and the Potter Heir would claim the brightest witch of the age as your wife and soulmate."

Draco dropped down into the chair that was behind him. He had been in the process of sitting down, but his legs had just given out. He looked at Spencer and wanted to force him to tell the truth, but he knew inside that Potter and Granger were his soulmates. He had been drawn to Potter since meeting him in the alley and seeing him on the train and knowing who he was, seeing him with Weasley had made Draco's blood boil.

"Potter is engaged to the female Weasley."

"Yes, I know that. Granger is dating the youngest male, Weasley. We have to take care with this. Neither of them was raised in this world, and they don't know the lore around soulmates. They won't go to the book and you going to the book after your father has proclaimed far and wide that you have no soulmate after Abraxas died would draw a lot of attention to you." Spencer picked up a book and held it out to Draco before sitting down on the arm of Draco's chair. Draco looked down before he looked up again at Spencer not understanding why Spencer was going to make him read it.

"Just recite it."

"This is not that account. This is the gossip journal that Lucius kept. Most of it isn't anything that would actually be of any use now, but there is one thing that is. Molly Weasley née Prewett was married to Arthur Weasley as a punishment. She brewed a love potion and was going to use it to make a child with another Pure-blood at Hogwarts before they turned seventeen as she was sure it was the only way that she was ever going to get the man that she wanted. Her father forced her to start dating Arthur Weasley and marry him under a magical family directive."

"What do you think that means?" Draco asked.

"Ginevra Weasley looks exactly like Lily Potter. I wouldn't fuck a woman who looks like my mother with a fallen off Death Eater cock," Spencer deadpanned, but it did what Spencer wanted, and that was make Draco let out a laugh.

"I don't know what to do."

"We plan like we do with everything. Granger is a solid mind, and she would be the first one to approach. She will be the level head."

"Granger will be better to go to yes. I really don't want to...no matter what they are not going to take my word or the word of a Malfoy Seer."

"Which is why the best bet is to get them to go to the book. The Book can't be charmed to lie. The book can't be forced into a memory to lie. Granger will research the hell out of it and then force Potter to go with her to the book."

Draco leaned into Spencer's body a little bit and closed his eyes before sighing.

"I'm glad you have a plan."

"I always have a plan." Spencer leaned his head down and butted it into Draco's. "I've had enough wine that I think I'm ready to pass out. Did you want to join me in bed?"

"Sure. I'm sure that I'm going to have a nightmare of some kind. Why did I get them? I mean your soulmate isn't much better with his grand job killing Death Eaters left and right. But I have two third of the Golden Trio. I have the bloody Boy-Who-Lived and his most staunch supporter."

"At least you have two, you and Potter would kill each other without her in the middle."

"Don't make me think of sex." Draco turned his head a little to inhale the scent of books and burned herbs that clung to Spencer. In the aftermath of the war, Spencer had been the only one who had stayed with Draco through it all. Spencer had saved Draco from being marked a Death Eater even though it nearly had Voldemort going after the only Reid left alive.

If it hadn't been for Spencer, Draco had no clue what his life would have been like.

_October 2, 2000_

Hermione Granger settled into the desk where she would probably be stuck until something better came along. Her internship at the most prestigious law firm in London came with a penalty; no one wanted her there. She didn't want to be there either, but the internship had been extended publically, and there was no way to turn it down without ruining her chances at every other firm in the area. Hermione could stick it out while she tried to find another place to work while she worked on her degree.

Hogwarts was good for primary education, but Hermione had figured out early on that anything to do with following a career in being in a courtroom there was nothing to help that in Hogwarts. The classes to become a magical solicitor was three two years of intense classes with the first year being hell. Hermione had survived it with the top grade, and that was why she had been offered her internship. The Boyles firm was the best, and every year they offered their sole internship to the student with the top grades. Hermione was almost shocked that they hadn't come up with a reason not to extend it to her.

"Granger," one of the junior solicitors said as he entered her office. It was after lunch and Hermione knew that with the work on her desk she would be there for a long time before she got to go home and get some sleep before classes the next morning.

"Yes?" Hermione said as she looked up at him. Edwards was his name, and he wasn't as bad as some of the other men who worked in the firm.

"You have a visitor in the open conference room on the seventh floor. I trust you can get there on your own?"

Hermione nodded, and the man left before her head even came up on the first nod. She frowned because it wasn't like Ron or Harry was going to be visiting her. Ron had not spoken to Hermione after she had ended things with him. Him leaving Harry and her to their own devices had made Hermione see him for what he was. When it all was all said and done, neither Harry or Hermione trusted Ron to do anything but take care of himself.

Grabbing her work satchel with all of her things in it, Hermione slipped out of her office and cast the charms needed to lock it. While it wouldn't stop anyone from entering it would make sure that they left with nothing and could touch nothing.

Hermione entered the lift with a small group of people, and she shot her magic at the buttons and pressed the seven. Two of the ladies in the lift looked at her with frowns on their face. The seventh floor was where all of the very high profile solicitors worked. That Hermione was heading up, there was not good. Either Hermione was being let go of, or something big was up, and Hermione was being invited in.

The glass that surrounded the room was darkened meaning that Hermione could not see inside as she approached after getting off the elevator. She really didn't like that. There was no guard outside, but if she were going to be escorted out, the guard would show up after she was in the room. Touching the doorknob, Hermione took a deep breath before she opened the door.

There was a single man inside the room, his back to the door and he was looking out at the section of the room that looked out over Muggle London.

"Miss Granger," the man said, and the voice was one that she knew that she should know but wasn't able to place it. He had long chestnut coloured hair, and it was allowed free, a style that not many high profile WIzards used on a day to day basis. "I remember you from Hogwarts."

"Lord Reid," Hermione said as the name shot to the front of her brain. Reid turned around, and he had a smile on his face.

"I'm glad you remember me."

Hermione stayed where she was because it wasn't like she could forget him or what had happened to him at the hands of her house. She had tried to stop the younger Hotchner from making his life a living hell but as Hotchner was a Pure-blood and she a Muggle-born, Hotchner did not listen to her.

"What can I do for you, Lord Reid?" Hermione asked. It was well known that the firm represented Spencer Reid and Draco Malfoy. She never thought that she would be the one to work with them. If Reid asked for her, it couldn't be good for her. Hermione knew that she hadn't done enough, but she didn't think that Reid would take that out by having her lose her internship.

"I'm actually here for you. What do you know of the Book of Bound Souls?" Reid asked.

"I know that it's the record of soulmates for the world. Anyone can visit it and find out if they have a soulmate. I've not read into it too much." Hermione had a lot of reasons, but only one would pass with the young Lord in front of her. Reid was known as very logical.

"I'm shocked. You read everything that you can get your hands on." Reid did sound shocked and looked even more shocked.

"The books that are not in the restricted section did not have much on it, and I never wanted to ask for permission to look at those specific books."

Reid stared at her for almost a minute before he nodded with a look of understanding on his face. "Understandable. What do you know about the wards on it that Magic herself placed?"

Hermione felt that he understood more than she wanted him to about why she didn't look into the lore that was the Book of Bound Souls. Hermione was proud to be the brightest Witch of the age, but it came with the fact that she was told over and over that she was a Muggle-born and didn't have the same entrenchment into magic as the Pure-bloods and even the Half-bloods had. Hermione would rather never step up to that book than for it to not open for her.

"Strongest in the world. While the names of the soulmates are collected by Magic and placed in the books, it is not the only way to find out if one has a soulmate. Many families have Seers in them, and they are very reliable."

"Why are you telling me this?" Hermione didn't understand, and she didn't like that.

"You do remember a few of my magical gifts don't you?"

"You read fast though I never got the exact number and you remember everything that you read. Many in Ravenclaw were upset that you did not sort into their house with a brain like that."

"I was served the best by Slytherin because if I had been sorted into any other house, I don't think that I would have had the strength to make sure that my father didn't kill my mother. I probably would have been killed, and it covered up that a Death Eater had done it because my father refused to serve Tom Riddle."

Hermione didn't know what to say to that. There were the rumours that had gone around the school about what had happened over that summer, but each had been more and more outlandish, but the core had been that Reid had killed his father in the protection of his mother. Harry had never disliked Reid for what he had done, but Ron had hated him and helped Hotchner with tormenting the Slytherin. Harry had stopped Ron when he noticed what he was doing, but Harry had other things that year to worry about, mainly the Triwizard Tournament. Ron had spent part of the years apart from them, so neither had been able to stop Ron from doing what he wanted. Hermione had no base for even thinking of killing a parent in the protection of the other. Her parents were still madly in love with each other, but she had seen other families that were not that lucky so theoretically she could understand it.

"You still haven't explained anything to me."

"No, I haven't. With my reading speed, I have been tasked with going over journals and other bits of paper that have been seized from the various Magical folk who were either put in Azkaban or killed during the war. It's slow going as many have deep enchantments to stop others from reading them. I cannot reveal what I know just that I know that you have a soulmate."

"How?"

"A family Seer predicted that the Brightest Witch of the Age would bond with her scion of this generation. You need to go to the book and see it for yourself I know, but I think it's best that you don't go alone. Take Potter."

Hermione stared at him, and she tried to figure out his angle. It was well known that Ron was not close with them and that most of the Weasley family was actually on the outs with Harry for not siding with Ron when the final explosive conversation happened that ended Hermione's relationship with him. There was something else there though in Reid's words and taking Potter was too specific.

"Does Harry have a soulmate in that book?"

"How would I know that? I'm not reading anything to do with the Potter family as those were gone over after the defeat of Riddle in the eighties to try and see how Potter survived the Killing Curse. Family Seers only see those in their family or the ones that are going to be bound to the family with soulmate magic."

Hermione couldn't tell if Reid was lying or not. She watched him as he reached into an inner pocket on his robe and pulled out a small hard case that was the colour purple. She frowned, but he opened it and pulled out what looked like a cigarette. He offered her one, and she shook her head.

"Draco took up stress smoking his seventh year at Hogwarts, and it stuck with me as well."

"Those are bad for you."

"Human cigarettes are bad for humans. Wizarding cigarettes are not bad for Wizards."

Reid slipped the butt of the cigarette between his lips and cupped his hand around the tip. Hermione watched as a small flame popped into existence in the middle of the palm of one of his hands. She watched as it grew just enough to light the cigarette before disappearing as Reid lowered his hands. She wondered if it was some kind of runic magic as he had not said a damned thing or used a wand. Wandless magic was hard, silent wandless magic was near impossible for most Witches and Wizards.

"You could do that," Reid said as he leaned back. He shot forward again and wiggled out of his robe before tossing it across a chair behind him. Hermione's eyes tracked over the elegant suit that he was wearing. He had always dressed well in Hogwarts when she saw him without his robes much like Malfoy had but with less ponce to it all.

"I could do what?"

"Wandless, silent magic. It's really not that hard for people of our levels of magic. I can show you all that you want about it." Reid conjured a slip of paper, and it took a few seconds for Hermione to realise that it was a business card. A pen, a regular Muggle pen appeared in his hand next. He wrote down a few things on the business card before he reached over and touched a runic symbol on the table. The doors behind Hermione opened, and she tried not to turn around to figure out who was there. She didn't like unknown people behind her. "Tomorrow afternoon Miss Granger is coming with me to discuss her future in this firm. Tell your bosses not to expect her at all."

The door shut with no more words spoken and Hermione just looked at Reid in shock. He slid the card over to her, and she picked it up by rote. There were three words scribbled on it.

"There is a phone booth on the side of the Ministry building, not the normal one that is used to get inside but on the south side of the building. It has a Superman symbol painted on it with spray paint, purple. Step into the booth after you are done with classes and utter those words. You'll arrive in the Department of Mysteries, and I'll meet you. If you bring anyone else, they will be ejected in a prison cell inside the Ministry. If you don't trust me, go through the normal Ministry entrance and ask for me. Someone will send for me, and I'll collect you."

"Why are you doing this?"

"The Magical world is not being served by the backward politics that allowed a blood purist to rise from a man who had a Muggle for a father. It's stupid, and Magical Britain is being looked down on for it. We used to be the seat of magic for the world, but in the aftermath of Merlin and Arthur, we grew too insular. Muggle-borns are born for a reason, and it's to make sure that magic doesn't die out. I've tried to get the other Pure-bloods to understand that the reason why Squibs are wholly being born in Pure-blood families is because of inbreeding but they refuse to think that a Muggle ideal that marrying a sibling or having a child with a father is what is ruining their family lines. Thankfully my mother and father had no common blood, one of the few rare families that can claim that. I would adore teaching you wandless magic and silent casting if for anything than to shove it into the faces of the first person to attack you for who you are within this firm."

"Is that why you came here today instead of going to the school to talk to me?" Hermione asked.

"Yes. You would be a force for good in this stupid and backward world, and I look forward to making sure that you can do it."

Reid inhaled on his cigarette and Hermione watched as the ashes fell down but as they did, they started to disappear. She was fascinated with it. Reid offered the cigarette to her with the butt turned toward her. She took it, but instead of taking a puff she watched the smoulder of the fire dance down the burning end and saw that the traces of the paper were burning away and leaving nothing behind. She turned it after watching it for a minute before she threw caution to the wind and took a small puff.

Hermione had tried Muggle cigarettes with a cousin when she had been thirteen, and she hated them, but this was very different. She felt herself start to calm down as the smoke filled her lungs.

"Mild emotion stabiliser that works better as a cloud of smoke than a liquid. The tobacco leaves are soaked in it. I also like the spiciness of cinnamon."

Hermione took a deeper puff, filling her lungs with it and exhaled. She would have to figure out where he got the cigarettes because with those she might not kill the idiots in the law firm. Hermione started to hand the cigarette back but saw that Reid had another lit. Reid stood up and grabbed his robe, slipping it over his arm before offering his other arm to Hermione. Hermione stood up and looped her arm around his. Reid started to walk towards the door and the door opened before they even got to it. Hermione tried not to freak out as every single eye in the place was on her, including the head of the firm Newt Boyles. Reid kissed her cheek after he exhaled smoke. Hermione realised that there was none of the horrible smell of Muggle cigarettes in the air.

"The perfect thing about Magical cigarettes is that one is allowed to smoke them everywhere. So tomorrow after you are done with classes. Send a note along if you don't get a chance to eat lunch. My House Elf, Libby makes wonderful food, and she would adore making something to send along."

"Oh, that sounds wonderful. Surprise me, I adore being surprised on food."

Reid smiled at her and nodded. He kissed her cheek again making Hermione blush.

"I'll take my leave so that you can get back to work." Reid disengaged from her arm, and then he was sweeping out of the office without looking at a single person even though a few called out to him. Hermione looked around at the people who were looking at her with less derision in their eyes. There was so much swimming in Hermione's brain. She couldn't wait for dinner with Harry that night to tell him everything.

* * *

Harry Potter settled in at his desk in the middle of the living room. His flat was small, and there was only a single bedroom, and there was no room in it for his desk. He had only a little bit of work that he needed to have done before training picked up again that next morning. Harry was a disadvantage compared to a few of the other Aurors-in-training that were in the program. Hermione had helped to tutor Harry through the repeat of their seventh year and made sure that Harry came out with a good grade. Harry picked up the Muggle pen that he used as a chewing object so that he didn't chew his quill. It was a habit that had been picked up after he had taken up smoking for a month after the Final Battle. Up until Hermione had caught him and berated him into submission on not smoking. It was stupid given the rate of cancer attached, and Hermione was right that he shouldn't do stupid shit that would lessen his life.

The door opened, and Harry fought the urge to draw his wand. Hermione was the only one that was able to slip through the wards without Harry knowing.

"Harry, you would not believe the day that I had." Hermione settled a bag of food down on the table in the middle of the kitchen before she stepped back into the living room to take off her winter cloak. She was still dressed in the skirt suit that Harry knew meant she had not changed after leaving the law firm. Usually, she changed, so she wasn't stuck in that for the entire time that she was at Harry's. "I need to change. Okay if I use your room?"

"Sure." Harry closed his books and rubbed his eyes. There was a lot of reading on the law that surrounded what an Auror could and couldn't do. Harry was glad that it was getting over with during the second year of training. His first year had been a little learning on law and things but mostly making sure that the Aurors could protect themselves and their partners. Neville was doing well in training, better than Neville thought that he would while Harry always had faith that Neville would do well in whatever he chose to do.

In the aftermath of the Final Battle, Neville had changed, and it wasn't precisely for the best in Harry's mind. He wasn't as soft anymore, but he also did not allow anyone, even his Gran to push him around. Neville was a boss when it came to training. There was no other pairing of those in training, whether it was the class above or the class below them that had ever won against them in mock fights.

Hermione came back into the living room, wrapping her hair up at the back of her head and holding it in place with a spelled pencil. Harry shoved himself back from his desk and stood up to walk into the kitchen. Hermione made him eat at the table for at least one meal a day, and it was evening unless she slept on his couch because of staying too late.

"So at the firm today I had a visitor."

"A visitor?" Harry asked as he held out his hand for the first box of food that Hermione pulled from the bag. With starting Auror training, there were a wealth of food options open to Harry for him to try. At Number Four, Harry never ate anything but what he cooked. Even if his Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin got take-out, Harry was relegated to eating what was in the fridge as they didn't like to waste money on him. Hermione had eaten out a lot with her parents growing up, so she was helping him expand his palate. Thai though was a favourite, and he hoped that Hermione got him the spicy curry.

"Yes. I was allowed on the seventh floor and wasn't forced to be there with a senior partner. I was allowed alone which I was told that I would never happen with those we represent."

"Who was it?" Harry asked. He sat down in the chair and popped the lid on the food. Hermione had got the spicy curry, and it looked spicier than usual. Hermione handed over a pair of chopsticks before she slipped a box into the fridge. Harry grinned at her. She indulged his love of Pad Thai Chicken for breakfast. He burned enough energy in training that he was on a strict diet to pretty much eat as much as he could. He had dropped what little baby fat he had in the first two months of training before collapsing one day while running. After that, the head Healer for the Aurors had made him her personal project. He had weekly checks with her and a potion regimen that was scary as hell. Harry had gained a great deal of muscle over the past year since that had happened and he felt better than he ever had.

"Lord Spencer Reid."

"He wanted a meeting with you?" Harry asked, almost asking before he had swallowed his first bit of food but he didn't want Hermione slapping his hand. Harry shoved another bit into his mouth as he was starving. He hadn't realised that so much time has passed since he had left the Ministry. Hermione was actually early, but usually, Harry had a snack of some kind not long after getting home.

"That's what I thought. You've heard of what he's doing now haven't you?"

"He's an Unspeakable. Has been since before the war fully started from the rumours around the Ministry. I can see it. Sometimes I think he's too intelligent for his own good. I've seen him a few times in the Auror halls." Harry tried to chew as fast as he could, but with Hermione's glare at him, he slowed down. He just tried to take as big of bites as he could get away with. Harry tried to be good at meals, but sometimes he was so hungry that he didn't keep to good manners. Though really the manners that his Aunt had instilled in him was not the type of manners that ordinary people had.

"He's been going through seized journals of Death Eaters and just anyone who was part of the war and finding things that needed to be taken care of."

"Yes, some of the things that he's found have been shown to us in the training groups as things to look for in an investigation. I know that he's found a lot of horrible things that have been sealed to just the Head Auror's purview."

"Yes, well. One of the sets of journals that he's been going through have family Seers talking about soulmates in families. I didn't even ask which family he had the journals off because if he has the journals, then it's a family that was either a Death Eater or the family was mostly wiped out."

"He's got a good bit of light families things as well. The Ministry seized a lot of things after the end of the war in the guise of finding the whole truth and even what happened on the light side is needed."

"Well, that makes me feel better."

"What did he want?"

"He asked me why I had never gone to the Book of Bound Souls."

"Oh." Harry let his fork drop down at that. He hadn't thought about going there since the end of the War. Harry had thought about it briefly when he turned seventeen, but he didn't want the name of a soulmate, if he had one, make him make a choice that would have been to live just for them instead of dying for the greater good. He had meant to go when the war was over. The Book wasn't in the hands of the Ministry and never would be so no matter when he went, he never would have been injured or captured.

"He said that my soulmate is mentioned in the journals that he's read. He didn't say that yours was mentioned, but he said that I needed to bring you."

Harry leaned back in his chair before picking up the fork again. He played with his food for a few minutes. Hermione stayed silent which told Harry that she was worried about what it meant. As far as Harry knew all of his families things had been seized upon the death of his parents, what wasn't in the vaults that was. What Harry had read of some of his parent's things, there was nothing about a Seer anywhere in the Potter family line for over two hundred years.

"You don't think it's something from my family do you?"

"No. But you know that a lot of families believe in that shit a lot and who knows who has said what to each other. There could be things mentioned about you in the journals even though we can't prove it."

"What do you think?" Harry asked.

"I know that he's been upstanding in everything." Hermione bit at her lip and frowned down at her food before jabbing at a piece of chicken in her meal hard enough that the container scooted across the table a little bit.

Harry stood up to grab a bottle of wine from the fridge. He had no wine glasses, but it didn't stop them from enjoying the wine on occasion, and it seemed like this was an occasion for it. Harry poured out a little in each glass before setting them down and plucked the bottle down. Hermione picked up her glass and took a sip while Harry downed everything in his glass. Hermione's eyebrows raised in shock at him.

"After claiming my family ring and becoming the head of the Potter line, I have been allowed access to the trial that he faced. I can't tell you more than what you already know, but if that had been me and someone was hurting my mom like that, I wouldn't have killed them with a charm that was meant for protection."

"What?" Hermione looked even more shocked than normal, and it was a good look for her. Harry liked to shock her, in good ways.

"You know that emotions affect how strong a spell we cast is. That's why the Patronus does better with memories that are dear and loving. Well, he cast a charm that has never killed before, but when he cast it, it expanded so much and became so powerful that his father was thrown into a wall and his body shattered. There was no way to charge him with a damned thing once his memory of the event as well as the two Heads of Houses that arrived that night to check on him after he asked for help. Diana Reid's memories of what happened are a little foggier, but the utter pain and the torture that she went through before Reid intervened is the reason why everything is being kept as quiet as it is. William Reid was from a light family, he was a good man to the world but look what he did in private. It was when the world was starting to go dark again. Death Eaters knew that Riddle was gaining power and Fudge was all about keeping everything silent that wasn't good."

"And I think more and more that Fudge could do anything to make me hate him anymore." Hermione filled up her glass and took a healthy drink of it. She frowned at it and stood up before setting it down, empty.

Harry watched Hermione walk over to where her winter cloak was hanging, and she pulled two things out of it. Harry frowned as he could only really see on and it looked like one of those fashionable cigarette cases that women used. Hermione set down a pack of cigarettes in front of Harry before opening up the case in her hand and taking one out as well as a Muggle lighter. She lit one up before looking at Harry with a raised eyebrow. Harry grabbed the pack in front of him and broke the spells that kept them fresh and unable to be messed with before pulling one out. Hermione handed over the lighter.

"Reid was smoking these. He gave me the name of the shop by owl as he realised after he left that he hadn't. Magical cigarettes are damned good."

Harry took a puff, and he felt the magic settle over him.

"Emotion stabiliser. Also, you don't need an ashtray. The ashes disappear on their own. Even the butts can be vanished. No chance of cancer at all."

"Really?" Harry looked at the cigarette in his hand.

"Yes. These are more expensive with the potions in the leaves, but the shop is nice. We can go tomorrow if you want."

"This is what Reid smoked?"

"He had cinnamon in his, but I got lavender for mine and nothing in yours."

"So besides luring you into the smoking world, what else did Lord Reid want?" Harry knew that technically he could call him Reid as they were on equal footing with them both being Lords but he had called him Lord Reid for many years, and it was a hard habit to break.

"You mean the soulmates things wasn't enough?" Hermione asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I know you. You are saving what you think will upset me the most for last. I have a soulmate, that's good. We both know that it's Ginny. You have a soulmate, I'm glad, I really hope it's not Ron. You started smoking, and you gave me something to calm me when wine wasn't doing it so drop what's next."

"Lord Reid has invited me to the Ministry to teach me or at least show me how to teach myself wandless and silent magic tomorrow."

"You are going to go to his lair for all intents and purposes?"

"He's not going to do a single thing to me. He's a good young man who got dealt a shit end of life. You know that better than most or was that Half-blood therapist you saw for shits and giggles?"

"You know that you got mean when you broke up with Ron."

"I have always been mean I've just tried to not act like it because it never got me friends in Muggle school."

"I don't know you might have had a few other guys panting after you if you had chopped their balls off."

Hermione laughed, and Harry was glad for it because she didn't laugh as much in the aftermath of the war, neither of them did, but Harry hated to see her so sullen all the time. Harry hoped that her soulmate was going to treat her well because he was not above killing them if they were an asshole. Harry and Hermione polished off the bottle of wine with the rest of their dinner. Harry tried again to talk her into sleeping in his bed, and he would take the couch. She never took him up on it, and he had no clue why. Harry's couch sucked. He kept meaning to get a new one but the flat sucked too and putting a new couch in a dingy flat didn't seem right. Once Harry was out of training he would look for a new flat. Once he was out of training, he would do a lot of things.


	3. Chapter 2

# Chapter 2

_October 3, 2000_

Draco hesitated as he entered Diagon Alley from Muggle London. He had a plan, and he needed to stick to it and not be tempted to go into the hall where the book was. It was easy to ignore it, but the urge to see them would be impossible if he saw their names written in the book. Draco had shopping to do, and he had classes in the afternoon. With the knowledge that he was going to have two soulmates, Draco knew that taking care of each other was going to be strained. Two Gryffindors and a Slytherin living together was going to be interesting and fraught with issues.

The sound of two pops behind him had Draco turning around and took in the two House Elves that were looking up at him. Draco sighed and closed his eyes. Nibby was not trying to be subtle at all. Nibby adored Draco living with Spencer as it meant that there was someone inside of Reid Manor besides Spencer for the first time in a long while. However, she had taken to mothering Draco. Which wasn't bad because she didn't try and dictate Draco's life but she was trying to get Draco to find a place to live that was his own so that he could start to establish himself and that meant finding House Elves. The Malfoy Elves had all been freed by his mother when Voldemort ha moved into the Manor. Voldemort would have killed them all. Draco had made sure that they all found new places and while a few had made comments about returning to Draco, Draco wanted to start over from scratch. He wanted his Elves, especially with who is soulmates were.

"Jibby, you can go back to the Manor. When I need you, I will send for you. Xibby, you can stay and help me with my shopping today."

Xibby turned and stuck her tongue out at her sister. Draco kept the laugh he wanted to let out to himself. Nibby had four children, and all of them were personalities of their own. Draco adored them but had soft spots for Xibby and Jibby, which was why Nibby had been sending them to Draco. There were too many Elves inside of Reid Manor and with Nibby's three youngest all of age now to bond on their own, Xibby and Jibby wanted to go elsewhere. Not too far though as they would want to visit their family as much as possible. Draco had already told Spencer that when he moved out, he would gladly accept their bonds but Draco liked the game that he was playing.

Draco took off his cloak and handed it over to Xibby who shrunk it and slipped it into the outfit that she was wearing. Spencer let his Elves dress as they wanted and Xibby liked skirt suits. She never dressed outlandishly like some of the other Reid Elves, and it was why Draco wanted her with him that day and not her sister who was stuck in the seventies of Muggle fashion. Xibby made all of her clothes and most of the clothes for the rest of the Reid Elves. It was an enjoyable hobby that she had picked up when Spencer had been younger. Many of the rest of the Elves still bought some of their clothes and Spencer would make sure that more were bought when Xibby became Draco's.

"Master Draco?" Xibby asked pulling Draco from his thoughts.

"Yes, Xibby?"

"Why you here? You've been letting Jibby do all of your shopping." Xibby wasn't upset at asking a very personal question, and Draco was glad. He had seen how robust a House Elf could be if given a proper bond and a secure knowledge that they were no inferior. Draco wanted that for his Elves.

"I don't think that house shopping should be left to Jibby." Draco smiled as Xibby started to bounce on her feet. She held out her hand, and a House Elf sized clipboard appeared in her hands as well as a Mont Blanc pen. He was sure that the pen was Spencer's, but as he was at work, it wouldn't matter.

"So what are we looking for?" Xibby asked.

"Why don't we go to the new coffee shop and we can settle in there and figure that out?" Draco asked.

"Yes, yes." Xibby reached out for Draco's hand, and he took it, but he didn't start to walk. Instead, Draco lifted her up to where he could set her on his shoulder. She crossed her legs into a very prim and proper pose and wrapped the arm closest to Draco's head around it to keep herself there. The Alley was very busy, and Draco knew that many in the Wizarding world wouldn't care about kicking or even stepping on a House Elf. Draco had been that way at one point, that was before Spencer. The friendship with Spencer had changed Draco in so many ways.

Draco opened the door to the coffee shop and inhaled the scent of freshly roasted beans. The shop was lovely and employed both House Elves and young witches and wizards who wanted a little extra money while in training for their future jobs. Draco had yet to meet the person who owned the shop, but the kind old House Elf who ran the front of the house was sitting at the counter like she always was.

"Hello, Sera," Draco said.

"Young Master Malfoy and Miss Xibby, welcome. Would you like your usual?" Sera asked.

Draco was astounded at her words, but he knew from Spencer's Elves that if the Witch or Wizard cared the speech of an Elf could be near perfect.

"Yes and one of those newer Earl Grey iced lattes for Miss Xibby please."

Sera nodded and shooed them away.

"Latte?" Xibby asked.

"Do you remember that drink that Spencer brought home, and Jibby stole it from him? That was one of the hot Earl Grey lattes. You love a good strong Earl Grey but don't like it hot so I thought that iced would be good for you."

"Oh, yes please."

Draco plucked Xibby off of his shoulder and settled her down in the chair that had it's back to the door. Draco didn't want anyone sneaking up on him, and he was glad that there was nothing behind him. He didn't trust much of the Wizarding world at the moment, given their lack of care of what Draco's actual part in the war was.

"So what do you think that I need?" Draco asked Xibby as he started to put up wards that would allow no one to hear what they were saying. The knowledge of his soulmates was better kept a secret until their bond had been cemented or at least the other two knew about it.

"You needs an office. I hears you and Master Spence talk about what you want to do and you needs an office, no matter where you think you going to work from, you needs a home office. Room for babies."

"Babies huh?" Draco asked with a grin on his face. He turned to look at the young House Elf who was walking up to the table with a plate of scones in her hands. Draco didn't try and take the plate from her at all as he knew that it would upset her. She was one of the better servers in the shop, but she was still petrified of quick movements after being subjected to torture at the hands of a group of Death Eater wannabes in the aftermath of the end of the war. She had bound herself to the owner of the restaurant as soon as she had found that person but the name was never spoken. Draco knew that he could look up who owned the property, but he hadn't yet. It was a fun little game.

"Thank you," Draco said. He had yet to get the House Elf's name from her.

"You are welcome. Lattes are coming up soon." The House Elf popped away as soon as she said the N in soon.

"So how many babies am I supposed to have?" Draco asked.

"Three. We've already discussed that."

"We meaning you and Jibby and not you, Jibby, and me."

"You don't know what you want."

"Well, you might be right on that."

There was a pop and Qan appeared in the middle of the shop. He looked at Draco and sighed. He tossed a book onto Draco's lap right over the napkin he had placed over his lap.

"New book came in for the young asshole. Enjoy it well and don't hurt the pages." Qan left before Draco could say anything. Draco laughed and shrunk the book before slipping it into his suit pocket. He would get the Elf back when he arrived back at Reid Manor that evening. He had some knew itching powder that he would love to try on Qan. Spencer indulged the little verbal war of the words that the two of them got into, and recently it had taken on an epic proportion that included pranks.

"So three babies. Might want to talk to my at-some-point wife about that." Draco didn't know if they would marry as a triad or not, but it would be a long time from then.

"We make her see the light."

Draco looked at Xibby and knew that he needed to tell her the truth of what was coming if for no other reason than she wouldn't get attached to a place that would not suit the Lords of two Houses. Draco rubbed at the knuckle of the finger that held his family ring. Draco slipped out of his seat and kneeled beside Xibby. She looked a little worried as he held out his hand.

"Master Draco?" Xibby asked.

"I will offer the same to Jibby when we arrive home. Spencer has already given you permission to bond with me whenever I wanted you to and had lessened the bond you had with him, enough to keep you healthy but also enough to where it wouldn't hurt you when you bound yourself to my House. So what do you say we do that now?"

It was a quick little exchange of words, and Draco felt her bond with him settle on his magical core. Draco pressed a kiss to her forehead before he settled back in his chair. Xibby had tears streaming down her face that she dotted at with a serviette from the table. As soon as the bits of wet paper hit the table, they disappeared.

"Hello Draco," a voice called out from the doorway that led to the kitchen area of the coffee shop. It was Luna Lovegood, more recently Luna Longbottom. Draco stood up from his chair.

"Luna. You look lovely." Draco had heard about her time in the Malfoy Manor, but Draco had been safe with Spencer during that. He had tried to get his mother to come with him, but she refused.

"Thank you. Marriage agrees with me. I was popping out to get a few things from the market when I felt the swell of magic. What have you been doing in my shop?"

"I bound Miss Xibby here to my magic is all."

"Lovely. I had better go before the crowds hit the market." Luna leaned over and kissed Draco's cheek before she started to walk toward the door. Draco adored the wards that he used because it allowed for his conversations with other people to be heard if they were inside of the bubble or he spoke to them. There was also the fact that those who owned a property could call out and be heard back and forth. It was a lovely bit of magic that came from Canada and Draco was grateful for it.

"The Manor that I am looking for."

"Manor?" Xibby asked, looking a little shocked.

"Yes. I'll need an office and so won't each of my mates."

"Mates? Each? Master Draco what nonsense you be speaking?"

"I have two soulmates."

"Two? That be so lovely. Jibby and I have our work cut out for us." Xibby started to write on the paper on the clipboard. "What they do?"

"One is in training to be an Auror, and I figure that it won't be long after that he is made the Head Auror. The other is in school to be a lawyer."

"Master Spence met with a lady yesterday that is trying to become a lawyer. Miss Hermione Granger."

"Yes." Draco tried not to think about her or Potter.

"What else you need to make mates happy?"

"A lot of land, I want a Quidditch pitch on the property. I adore playing and while I won't have a whole team around the Auror and I were both seekers so we can play against each other that way. Also a large library. I want a lot of books. Bedrooms for each of us or a large master bedroom that we can change to have three suites off of it. My mates and I have a lot of problems to overcome before we can even think of bonding and I want this house to show them that I mean it when I say that I want them."

"You act like they would be horrible to you."

"We were horrible to each other in school. Spencer is the only thing that stopped me from becoming what my father wanted me to be, Xibby. I am all in on this. Magic thinks that we are perfect for each and I trust in that. They will not."

"They be Muggle-borns?" Xibby asked.

"As close as. The female is Muggle-born but very book knowledge smart. She's not delved much at all into the lore behind Magical soulmates. The male he's Half-blood, but his education in the Magical world lacks a great deal. He had very lax teachers growing up."

Draco had never asked before who raised him. Dumbledore had told the courts time and again that Potter was safe and they trusted him. A young man stepped out from behind the counter with Draco's plain latte, and a tall cup that was made for House Elf sized hands with Xibby's Earl Grey iced latte inside of it. He set down a pitcher beside the cup that made up the rest of the standard sized drink. Xibby leaned forward and took a sip of her drink before putting a straw in it. She beamed at Draco before taking the straw from the young man.

Potter had lacked in a lot of information that Draco had assumed at the time was him just not caring about the social standards of the Wizarding world. Draco wondered about the first time that he had met him with the oversized clothes. Potter had worn clothes like them all the time when he was not in school robes, and he wore school clothes more than any other student in the school. Yet when he had appeared in public the first time after the end of the world, he had been in much better clothes. He looked like the young Lord of an Ancient and Noble House. Draco had been shocked by the change and assumed that someone had instructed him on how he should dress.

Everything that Draco had assumed was Potter flaunting the social etiquette of the Ancient and Noble houses could be explained by not having a Wizarding guardian. Draco felt a little shame at that. Spencer had asked him once if anyone knew who had raised him and Draco had been unable to tell him.

"Or he was raised in the Muggle world with no education on Wizarding society until he came to Hogwarts," Draco admitted.

Xibby looked at Draco with a look of shock on her face. She looked down at her notes and then back at Draco before taking a long drink of her latte.

"Please, Master Draco, say their names."

"Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."

"Oh dear. That going to be..." Xibby swallowed and looked at Draco with a look of support on her face. The whole of the Elves that lived in Reid Manor knew of the issues between Draco and his two soulmates. "You going to have to be on your best behaviour. You no same my new House with treating your mates like you have for years."

"I know this very well, Xibby. I will try not to be a git as Qan so lovingly calls me."

"When we meet them?" Xibby asked.

"Well, that's where it becomes an issue. They don't know that I am their mate. My father tried to hide it from me, but Spencer found word of it in a journal. I am going to get the Manor ready for them and then approach them. I want to show them that I am in on this. I need to set up a new Manor anyway. I have to show the new Malfoy image."

"You be good Lord Malfoy, Master Draco. Jibby and I make sure you not a git." Xibby looked at the paper in front of her. "You want Quidditch pitch for you and for Lord Potter. What you want that is just for you?"

"Space for a potions lab and a tub big enough to swim in."

"You know that this going to be hard to find."

"I'm okay with having people come in and do the small things like the tub. The library, potions lab, and land big enough for a pitch are not negotiable."

"Can work with that. Did you want me to go while you do other things or go together?"

"Together."

* * *

Hermione straightened the collar of her cloak before wrapping it tightly around her body. The October air was biting on her skin. She was worn out from a morning of classes and sleeping like shit on Harry's couch. Hermione knew that Harry didn't understand why she wouldn't take his bed and it had solely to do with the fact that she was afraid of what she would be surrounded by the scent of him. He attraction to Ron had been solely for the fact that he had paid attention to her. It had been sloppy attention, but it was more than she had ever got before.

Surviving the war and seeing Harry struggling in the aftermath made Hermione grow up the rest of the way. She got rid of things that did not do her well at all, and the main thing on that was getting rid of Ron. It had been hard to endure what came in the aftermath of that, but Hermione was very glad that she had never given into Ron's want of sex. That was part of what made Hermione see him for what he was because he cared little for things that were not sex-related. Hermione knew that she was considered frigid by the standards of many of the Witches and Wizards in Hogwarts. Hermione had no qualms about sex or about having before marriage. The only wedding rights that would demand her enter the marriage a virgin were ones that she would never agree to because she would give up any chance of divorce or to keep any children that resulted from the marriage.

"Excuse me," a voice said.

Hermione looked up to see that she had stopped in the mouth of the alley where she was headed. Her mind might have been elsewhere, but it seemed her magic knew what it wanted.

"Sorry." Hermione looked up as she spoke to see that it was Malfoy who had spoke and he looked at her in a way that he never had before. Hermione had no clue what that look was. Hermione stepped to the side to allow Malfoy to leave the alley. It was the first time that she had been around Malfoy since the Final Battle.

"It's perfectly fine. You were standing there for over a minute before I spoke. You come on into the alley out of the cold," Malfoy said. He stepped to the side a little to allow Hermione to enter the alley. Hermione unclasped the hook keeping her cloak at her neck as she stepped into the alley. She dropped her hands, and a gust of wind rushed through, and Hermione tried to grab her cloak, but it was carried off by the wind. Hermione grabbed her wand, but by the time that she was able to see it, it was being run over by a car. It was her only cloak. Hermione had not worn long sleeves because of joining Lord Reid in his lab, and she was unsure of the temperature of the place.

"Bloody hell." Hermione didn't care about the cloak as much as she didn't really have the money for a new one that was as good as that one. She had a small trust from her grandparents but had spent most of it on her education and books needed. If she asked Harry for help, he would give it to her. She just didn't know if she could do it.

"Here." Malfoy stepped up to her with his cloak outstretched. Hermione looked at his hand before looking at his face again. "It's not going to bite."

"I know." Hermione reached out and took it without even thinking. She put it on when the wind picked up again, bringing rain down as well as an even chiller wind with it. It was only a little warm from his body heat, but it was softer than her own had been. She felt it start to warm up even more. It was well charmed, which hers had not been. Her's had been Muggle.

"You can owl it to Spencer tonight when you get home or keep it until you get a replacement. The weather is just supposed to stay cold the next few days."

"Thank you, Lord Malfoy."

"Draco, please." Malfoy stepped up to Hermione and closed the clasp on the cloak and pulled up the hood. She felt herself start to get warm and she wasn't sure that it was all the charm work on the cloak. "It looks good on you. Much better than it does on me. Mother has her ideas of what looks good on me, and I think most of the time that it has to do with keeping me a child. I think it was a bit of destiny. Please, Miss Granger, keep it as it does look much better on you."

"If you insist on me calling you Draco, please call me Hermione."

"Hermione. Don't keep Spencer waiting. He's quite hungry but demanding that he wait for you to eat lunch." Malfoy smiled at Hermione before sweeping past her with barely a glance back. Hermione turned to watch him leave unsure of just what the hell had just happened. She waited until he disappeared around the corner. She almost rushed after him to hand it back as she was going inside and he seemed to be walking around. When Hermione made it to the opening of the alley, she saw Malfoy turn into a shop that sold Wizard and Muggle clothes down the block.

Hermione turned and walked back to the phone booth, and she said the words that would take her down to where she wanted to go. There was no music in the lift as it started up. However, instead of doing down, there was an opening on the side of the building, and that was where the lift went. After a few seconds of travelling, it stopped and turned direction to head perpendicular to where it had been going before. The door opened into a lab, and she saw Reid standing at a desk with a bunch of books spread out around him. Hermione exited the lift but didn't go any further into the room. There was no one else in the room, and Reid seemed to be lost in his own world.

After three minutes Reid reached out with a hand to pick up what looked like a pretzel stick and snapped it in half before popping both pieces into his mouth. He chewed on them as he started to write something out in a Muggle notebook beside him. Hermione gave it another minute before she cleared her throat.

Reid looked up and his face split into a grin. "Welcome, Miss Granger. Please come in. Please. I'm thrilled to have you here." Reid closed the book that he was reading and stepped around the table that he had been standing in front of but stopped when he took her in the whole way. "Why are you wearing Draco's cloak?"

"Stupid weather got worse and took mine for a ride, and it landed under the tyre of a moving car. Draco gave me this. He said it looked better on me and told me to keep it."

"It does look better on you than him. Bless Narcissa, she's trying to make up for years of having to act a certain way by taking Draco clothes shopping. I hope you are hungry. Libby found out that I was sharing food with someone today, so she pulled out all of the stops. There are five courses for this bloody meal."

"Five courses?" Hermione asked. She reached up to unclasp the cloak, but as she touched it, it came undone on its own but didn't even start to slip down. She would have to owl Malfoy to ask just what the hell the cloak did.

"Come on. No one is going to bother us so come in and settle in. I have a book for you to read over before we get started so if you don't want to keep up with small talk you and I can both just read books." Reid waved at a table that was on the far side of the room that had food trays laid out on it as well as plates and what looked like a bottle of wine. Hermione stepped forward to try and read it, but the words were in a language that she didn't know. She thought about how it could have been Reid himself that was her soulmate, and instead of just saying it he was wooing her with deception.

"I think maybe this was a mistake," Hermione said, and she touched her throat, and the cloak closed the clasp again. She turned, but the lift was not there anymore. Hermione pulled her wand and turned to look at Reid. He looked crestfallen. Hell, he looked gutted.

"I messed up dammit. He's going-" Reid pressed his lips together, and his face turned back into what kind of looked like a blank slate. There was no emotion on it. "I'm sorry, Miss Granger that I freaked you out. I sometimes forget that no one likes me for who I am except for my Elves and Draco. The lift only works on dropping people off but there is an apparition point over there in the corner it only goes out to the alley. Have a wonderful day."

Reid turned away from Hermione, and as he turned, he waved toward a corner. Hermione opened her mouth to call out, but Reid disappeared through a doorway. Hermione tried to follow him but was stopped by a barrier. It probably led to the rest of the Department of Mysteries, and this was probably his office that was why he had access that wasn't through the Ministry.

There was the sound of a pop and Hermione turned to see a very cute looking female Elf by the food. She touched each tray, and her frown deepened as she touched the bottle of wine. The Elf turned and jumped when she saw Hermione.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Where be Master Spence?" The Elf took a step towards Hermione and looked very upset.

"I upset him, and he disappeared into the Department, I think. He went through that door." Hermione pointed toward where the door was. The Elf's frown deepened.

"Why you upset him?"

"He-" Hermione stopped and pointed at the food. The Elf turned and looked at it.

"You don't like the food? I can make you whatever you like. If you don't like fruit juice, I can get coffee, that weird Muggle fizzy stuff that Master Draco likes even. Tea. I can make you any kind of tea that you want. My name be Libby, and I Master Spence's chef Elf." Libby looked very excited at the prospect of getting her something else to drink.

"That's fruit juice?"

"Oh yes, Polish. Master Spence like it since he was a child. His mom brought it home for him after a trip with bad Master. What did you think it was?"

"Wine."

"Wine? Oh no. Master Spence only drink wine at night. Never during work." Libby looked behind Hermione, and that made Hermione turn around to see Reid stepping into the room again. He stopped when he saw Hermione still standing there.

"Don't go," Hermione said loudly when it seemed like he was going to go backwards out of the room.

"Yous sits down, Master Spence," Libby said.

Reid looked at the House Elf for a second before he started fully into the room and skirted past Hermione before sitting down on top of another table and not in front of the food like Libby had pointed. Libby sighed, and the look on her face said that she was used to it.

"I think that we got off on the wrong foot, Lord Reid. I assumed things with looking at the food. I thought that you were trying to get me on a date without calling it a date."

"That's...Miss Granger, I promise you that I am very firmly gay. I can appreciate the assets that a woman has, but tits and a slit between the legs don't do a damned thing for me. I should have started with that. Or at least that I am not the secret soulmate of yours. If you wanted to know though I would tell you."

Hermione looked at Reid and watched him as he acted a lot more sure of himself than he looked to be feeling. Hermione understood what he said though about people not liking him for him. Hermione had felt like that until Ron and Harry. Ron though had been false it seemed, but Harry stuck with her through everything. He made staying in the Wizarding world worth whatever abuse she took.

"No, please keep it a secret for now. I'm already talking Harry into going with me to the book. I think in a few days I can have it happen. I would rather see the words for myself than to know them beforehand and not go out of spite. Do you have a soulmate?"

"Yes, I do. I went to the book the morning that I turned seventeen. It's going to be a long time before he would ever look in my direction as anything other than someone that he hates."

"Oh Lord that's..." Hermione trailed off and stepped over to the table that he was sitting on. She hopped up beside him and took off the cloak. She looked around for a safe place to put it, but Reid held out his hand, and she handed it over. He let go of the cloak as soon as it was fully in his hand. Hermione watched as it flew off to the side of the room and settled on a coat rack there along with what looked like about five others.

"I always remember to wear them into work but forget them when I leave. Tibby, my personal Elf, comes and collects them when I run out at home."

Hermione gasped when the table that had the food on it transfigured in front of her to a bar style table and scooted closer to them.

"You are going to show me how to teach myself on all of that right?"

"Of course. I have the book I want you to read here and a few others you can take with you, but the one can't leave my side as it's an entailed Reid family book. The others I have purchased for you to take with you as there are more copies than what exists in my library."

Reid held out his hand, and a book flew to it. He handed it over. Hermione traced her fingers over the grooves in the cover that spelled out the title of the book as well as the name. A. Merlin Reid was the author's name.

"My great-great-great-great-great grandfather had high hopes for his son. Ambrosius Merlin Reid. He went by Merry to everyone. He was book smart instead of a potion maker or a spell creator, but he was damned good at wandless and silent casting. It wasn't really that big then, just as it is now. I think it has more to do with being forced to use a wand to do magic as if you don't have your wand, you can't do magic."

"Do you use your wand?"

"When in public but then it's only for show. I've not needed since I turned seventeen. When I finished my magical maturation, I didn't need it at all anymore." Reid held out his hand, and a wand shot out into it. He looked at it before grabbing a napkin from the stack beside the food. He wiped a few things off of the wand. "As you can see I tend to lose track of it inside of my lab."

There was a pop and Hermione looked around to see that Libby had left.

"She worries when I don't eat by a certain time."

"I'm sorry."

"No, no. Assumptions are horrible, but I can see where you would think what you did. It's forgotten, I promise." Reid tapped the book. "So into reading. All of the food is finger foods. Even the salads. I don't even want to know where Libby got the idea to wrap a salad in a larger leaf of lettuce. They are good. She made them for dinner last night. You ought to have seen Draco. He kept poking them with his fork and expecting them to explode or something."

Hermione laughed as Reid smiled. It changed his face to something very beautiful.

"What's Malfoy like? I know what he was like at school, but he's very changed after the death of his father and really that whole year of hell. He's...softer in a way that I never thought that he would be."

"Lucius Malfoy loved the idea of his son and his son being the perfect son, and that was never going to be Draco. He tried. Right up until Lucius started to talk about Draco taking the Mark. Lucius knew that Riddle was trying to find a new body, and working on making one if needed. It could have been stopped. I didn't find out about it until after Diggory and Potter took the cup. By then he was back. Lucius was in the stands, and I was spying, but then they were back, and it was very evident that Diggory was very dead. Fudge refused to see what was coming. Then I went home and found Unspeakables outside of my Manor. Nibby was keeping them out, but I let them in."

"So early? I knew that after it was all said and done the Unspeakables stood up for you and Malfoy."

Reid picked up a lid off of a tray, and Hermione looked at the little salad pods for lack of a better term. Reid picked one up and popped it into his mouth, chewing slowly but humming. Hermione followed suit. There was just enough of the dressing inside to make it like a perfect bite of salad.

"I don't know if she cooks like this for finger food, I might have to pay her to cook for me. I can eat without having to stop reading, and that is all kinds of wonderful. I'm intrigued by what is under the last four lids."

"All in good time," Reid said with a laugh. He picked up a few of the salad wraps and held them up with between each of the four fingers on his hand. He lifted his hand up to drop one in his mouth. He poked at Hermione's book with the other hand before he leaned back on the table and tucked his legs up to where he could lay his book that appeared in his hands on his lap. Hermione watched him read for a few seconds before she adopted the same pose. She heard the tray scrape on the table to see that Reid pulled it up to where it was between their feet on their table. She grabbed a handful of the salad wraps and dropped one in her mouth.

Hours passed by with Hermione eating whatever Reid opened up next. Each of the trays of food was wonderful, and Hermione was tempted to ask him how much a small version of lunch like this would be each day. Between classes and working at the Law Firm, Hermione would get a lot more done if she could eat lunch without having to actually block out time to eat. Reid read seventeen books in the time that it took Hermione to read the one book but when she read what she could of Reid's books it was all to do with summoning creatures and things. She didn't want to ask, and he didn't offer.

The afternoon was one of the better ones that Hermione could remember she ever had. She made a plan to ask him for more afternoons like it except maybe on weekends. She was looking forward to a friend who liked to read as much as she did. Hell, she was looking forward to a friend in general.

* * *

Harry pulled off the robes that signified him as an Auror in training. Underneath he was dressed in a simple pale green jumper and jeans. He was enjoying buying his own clothes and knew that as Lord Potter he had an image he had to maintain. There had been several stories about the way he dressed when he was younger as compared to then in the papers and magazines. Harry had ignored every single one of them. The lack of care of a child wearing oversized clothes for years and then all of a sudden changing that when he was on his own showed that they cared nothing for his actual living situation.

Hermione was nowhere to be seen, but Harry wasn't shocked about that. She was probably stuck talking to Reid, either b her choice or his. Harry didn't know what to think of Reid's all of a sudden interest in her. Harry had spent most of the day thinking about it.

"Harry?" Neville called out.

Harry turned to face his partner and smiled at him, making Neville frown even more. Neville gripped Harry's arm and tugged him over in a corner to where they could see everything and anyone approaching them.

"You've been staring off into space for five minutes and didn't hear m the first five times I called out to you."

"Just worried about something, Nev."

"Hermione's day with Reid?"

"How did you know?"

"It's the talk of the Ministry. However, you don't have to worry about him trying to get in her clothes. He's gay and wouldn't know what to do with a woman and pleasure."

"Do you remember him from school? I barely do, and it's mainly to do with the one Hotchner kid making his life a living hell."

"Growing up, before I went to Hogwarts I played with him a lot. After I went to Hogwarts, he stopped coming around. After his first year, I figured out why. He stopped hanging out with everyone around the time that his mother supposedly went ill. I asked him about it one day in the library our fifth year and his third. He was afraid that his father would kill his mother."

"I read everything over after I claimed the Potter title. There were many records of him going to the Aurors. Going to Dumbledore. That was a situation that was very much in line with turning him into another Riddle; you know that right?"

"I stayed away from reading about that. I didn't want to bias myself either direction, and it was done and over with."

"Dumbledore wanted him sent to an orphanage that Half-bloods are sent to when their parents die since no one wanted to claim him. If it weren't for his solicitor who claimed him until he could legally make himself an adult, he would have been. That would have been hell. I would rather have stayed with the Dursleys than go to that place. I went there after the war. It was horrible. I understand why Dumbledore didn't want me there but if it wasn't good enough for me, how the hell was it good enough for anyone else.?"

"I don't know. We've been working on it though. Every single Pure-blood family donated to the new orphanage that you turned that one Potter property into. I think it was mostly guilt, but it's a good place. Love to stay and chat but Luna is expecting me at the shop."

"Putting you to work?"

"Taste testing. She has a few new desserts she wants to run, and I am her taste tester."

"So a fun evening?" Harry clasped Neville on the shoulder and looked at the lifts. One door opened and Hermione and Reid stepped out. Harry felt a shock at the way that he looked. The style for young lords of houses had changed with Harry steadfastly refusing to grow out his hair. Neville had followed suit as did many of the ones that Harry had gone to school with. After Malfoy had cut his into a short shag, some of the older Nobles had done the same.

Hermione was more animated than Harry had seen her in a long time. Reid was smìling, and it was making Harry a little hot under the collar. Which shocked harry as it had been a very long time since anyone, but Ginny had made him feel like that. Harry didn't know what to do. He loved Ginny, but her demands on him lately had been getting to be too much. She hated that he donated to charity instead of spending it on her. Hated that he ate meals with Hermione more than with her. Ginny wanted meals out and dancing in clubs that Harry didn't want to do. Hermione didn't want to go out at all an preferred to eat in and made no demands on harry besides just being in the room. If Harry didn't want to talk, she wouldn't make him. Either filling the silence with her own words or just sitting and reading. Harry kept dates with Ginny to the weekend where he could stay out late and not be too tired for Auror training.

"And it really did that?"

"Oh yes. Professor Vector was astonished. It made her smile and after the war, making her smile was worth the detention I got. Oh, hello," Reid said when he looked up to see Harry who had stayed where he was, and Hermione had directed the both of them towards him.

"Hello, Lord Reid," Harry said.

Reid's face crinkled in displeasure. "Call me Spencer, please."

"Harry then." Harry held out his hand for a shake. Reid looked down at it for a few seconds before he actually took it. Harry was shocked at how strong the hold on his hand was. It wasn't like Reid was trying to dominate the handshake but more that it was someone who wasn't used to shaking and didn't want it to be too weak. Harry relaxed his grip and Reid's relaxed down to a normal pressure. "Hermione convinced me to not just rush out to the book to look at the name and that I should not pressure you for the name as well. I think she was afraid that I would trap you in a room and demand it."

"Harry James Potter!" Hermione said.

"Like you would have a chance of keeping me anywhere that I wouldn't want to be."

Harry raised his eyebrow at Reid and his statement. The sound of a pop happened, and Harry looked about to see a House Elf standing beside Reid on the side of him that was not Hermione's side.

"Yes, Nibby?"

"My sister kindly requests your presence at dinner, Miss Hermione," the House Elf said looking at Hermione as he spoke.

"Oh, I had plans with Harry for dinner."

"Lord Potter can come to dinner as well. Libby can make for one or three."

"Draco was coming to dinner."

"Yes, and his mother talked him into an International portkey to Paris and back for dinner. Draco also wanted NIbby to talk you into going out to eat, but I knows you not want to so Libby mentioned asking Miss Hermione and if Lord Potter wanted to come, he could."

"We shouldn't, Harry but I want to. Lunch was so good."

"I would adore having you both over. Draco has been my only dining partner for a while."

Harry thought about that fact that Malfoy spent a lot of time with Reid and that didn't sit well with him, and he didn't understand why.

"You know, Hermione has been my only dining partner other than Ginny, and I think that some guy time would be lovely." Harry stepped closer to Reid and touched his arm. He had no clue what he was doing, but he sidled just a little bit closer, and he watched as Reid's eyes tracked his movement and his pupil expanded a little in shock or excitement. Harry knew that Ginny's eyes did something like it when they were snogging after dinner. Harry knew that he was flirting, but he hadn't ever really done it before, and it felt weird.

"Well guy time with Hermione," Reid said, and he waved at someone who was on the other side of the room. Harry looked up to see who and when he looked back, Reid was on the other side of Hermione and giving Harry weird looks.

"I'm used to being considered one of the guys. When your two best friends growing up are guys, you get used to it."

"That's a shame. You are so lovely I'm shocked that no one else tried to slip in and steal you from them considering that you turned out so beautiful and so intelligent."

"Not many men in the Wizarding world care for a woman who is intelligent," Hermione said with a not small amount of derision in her voice. It pulled Harry back, and he looked at her. He tried to say something to tell her that he would have done it. The thought was fleeting, and when Harry blinked to clear his sight before shaking his head to clear it, he saw that Reid and Hermione were looking at him at the exit point onto the Muggle streets. Harry jogged to catch up.

"It's stupid really marrying someone who is not equal in intelligence is disserving," Reid said.

"Then why aren't you trying to find someone other than Hermione to slip into your bed and make babies with?" Harry asked before he could think and he didn't know why it came out.

"HARRY JAMES!" Hermione spun on her heel and whack Harry's arm.

Harry opened his mouth to say that he was sorry and he didn't know why he said it or where it came from. He knew that Reid was gay. Even before Neville had said it, there were rumours.

"I think that maybe it's best if I was not around Lord Potter at the moment as much like being around Draco I just bring out the worst in Lord Potter. Good day to you both." Reid tipped his head in a mockery of tipping a hat to them before he stepped through the wall that was an exit only, put in after so many fights inside of the Ministry and no way out for others that didn't take forever. Reid turned an apparated away as soon as he was clear without a backward glance at all.

"What the hell was that?" Hermione demanded of Harry.

"I don't know. I just really don't know. Tomorrow after I am done with training I'll stop by his office and talk to him. I just don't know where that came from."

"He's gay, Harry and knows exactly who his soulmate is but is afraid of being rejected wholesale so he doesn't even look up anything on him. We talked about it, and he's so damned lonely and isolated. I think that you behaving like that was just one thing too many. I made an assumption before, and I hurt him as well. He told me that he forgot that no one but Malfoy and his House Elves likes him for who he is. What kind of life has he had if Malfoy and his House Elves are his only friends?"

Hermione looked to be on the verge of tears, so Harry wrapped his arm around her and coaxed her out of the Ministry. He didn't have an answer to that. He thought about his first real friend that he ever considered that he had. Hedwig. He thought about her in his flat and missed her at that moment even though it had only been since that morning since he saw her.

"I never had friends," Harry started as they walked down the street. This wasn't something that he wanted to really go into, but he wanted her to understand him. "Dudley made sure that everyone that we went to school with thought of me as a freak. Then I got this weird letter, and Hagrid showed up. He bought me my first birthday present ever, Hedwig. After I got back to Number Four with all of the things that I needed for school, I spent the entire night reading everything that I could on magic, and I told Hedwig all about it. I consider her my first friend ever and then there was Ron, and I stayed friends with him longer than I should have because he was the first human friend that I had. I can understand not wanting to give that up but I look back, and I know that after the Triwizard Tournament I never should have allowed him to be my friend anymore. You have always been a truer friend than him, and I hate that sometimes I ignored you in favour of him. I don't want to lose you, Hermione."

"Making new friends isn't going to make me forget you, Harry. You and Ron were my first friends as well. Those I considered my true friends. I had girls that I was kind of close to growing up, but it was just because we were close in age and where we lived. My first summer back home after our first year, none of them wanted to hang out with me anymore. Neville and Luna keep inviting me over for tea on Sunday afternoons, but I keep refusing. I stay at Mom and Dad's, and I work on school work. Double checking everything even though I know it's perfect because it's what I do. It's what I've always done, but nothing in life is going to change if we don't get out there and do something. Weekdays we focus on training and on classes but what if on the weekends we do stuff for us again? We can start with going to Neville and Luna's and have tea."

"Ginny likes to go out dancing on Saturdays after we have our very public date. I think that a afternoon tea would be wonderful."

"You've not..." Hermione stopped walking and looked around. She bit at her lip for a few seconds. "Can we go to your place?"

"Sure." Harry tugged her even closer to his body. He was best at side-along apparition, so it was never a question of her pulling him along with her. They appeared in the closest spot to the flat that Harry felt safe appearing as it was a Muggle area of London. Hermione pulled her cloak in tighter, and Harry realised that it was a new one. "Where did you get that? A present from Reid?"

Hermione looked at Harry with a look of shock on her face, and Harry realised that he said Reid's name like it was a curse. Harry wanted to shut his mouth and never speak again. He was messing everything up.

"Malfoy gave it to me after mine was ruined by a car running it over during that horrible storm this afternoon. He was a perfect gentleman about it as well. He said that he liked the look of it on me better than how he liked it on himself."

Harry couldn't say anything about that. There was no rush of emotion which Harry knew that there should be because a gift from Malfoy wasn't good. Why the hell did he have an issue with a gift coming from Reid but not Malfoy? Malfoy was an asshole and the one big part of Harry's childhood that he hated.

There was silence as they made their way to the lift that would take them up to the fifth floor. After a few minutes of doing everything but talk, Harry turned to look at Hermione to see that she was looking out the window into Muggle London.

"I think that I'm just stressed out with Auror training. Please don't...I don't know what the hell I am saying what I am saying and I don't understand it. You do need friends outside of me."

"We need friends outside of each other, Harry. We've clung to each other too tight since the end of the war. We went through all of that therapy, and we did well with it, but we've not expanded on it. You have Ginny, but no one else in the Weasley family gives us the time of day after I broke it off with Ron. We are an island, and we don't need to be anymore."

"Reid is the type of person that I think you should have made friends with in school. I never saw past his house and then what happened with his father. I hate that I let Ron's hatred of Slytherin colour me in the way that I did. I hate that there were some that could have been stopped from following their parents if anyone had shown them that there was something different. Look at Malfoy, he kept out of it all and denounced all friends that were even suspected of taking the Mark. We were children who were making stupid decisions, and no one in that school tried to help. It's like we were rewarded for making the Slytherin house the scapegoats for everything."

"I thought you let go of all of that?" Hermione asked as she stepped up to Harry and pulled him into a hug. He hugged her back just as tight.

"I did, but it comes up sometimes, and I look at Reid, and I see what he is and think about what he could be if anyone had actually done more than slap Hotchner's hands and call him a bad boy."

"That's why you've been speaking about the Hogwarts houses in interviews isn't?"

"House loyalty is all well and good, just like a sports team though you don't fucking hate people who are close to you that like a different team."

There was a pop in the room, and Harry turned toward it. He only had Dobby as his House Elf, the Elf had been able to be healed after being attacked. He almost hadn't. However, Dobby wasn't there. Dobby was spending his days helping a few families that needed help after the war, single parents who needed a little help to care for kids and such. Dobby was finding more and more Elves to help him with it as well. Unbonded ones and getting bonds for free with the families. Harry was able to keep his own place clean. A piece of paper dropped down to the kitchen table. Harry tried not to feel a sense of dread as Hermione walked over to pick it up. She turned her face to Harry with a smile on it.

"Libby, that's Spencer's chef Elf, is willing to feed us still but you have to call an Elf named Rael so that she can cross your wards."

"Rael," Harry called out before he could talk himself out of it. The Elf that appeared looked so damned adorable. Harry smiled at her as she held out a bottle of something. Harry couldn't read the words.

"Polish sparkling fruit juice. A favourite of Spencer's. We had this at lunch. Thank you, Rael. You can bring the food into the kitchen here. You look adorable."

"Thank you. I went to a fashion show with Miss Narcissa a few months back. She bought me several outfits. This was one of them." Rael grabbed the edge of her skirt and did a little twirl. Flowers arced off of the dress but when they hit the floor, they disappeared. It was damned adorable, and Harry could see why Reid sent her. There was no way that even a Death Eater would hurt her unless they were truly fucked up. Harry made a mental note to formally apologise to Reid the next day.


	4. Chapter 3

# Chapter 3

_October 4, 2000_

Draco was bored out of his mind as he looked at each of the files for the Manors for sale through the person who Draco had found. None of the properties looked like places that he wanted to actually live in the long-term. It Draco didn't want anything as large as the Malfoy Manor but big enough for his two soulmates and himself to have a bedroom alone as well as one for all three, enough bedroom for kids if they had any and a floor for offices. Changing his brain to think of them as Harry and Hermione instead of Potter and Granger would take time.

The night out with his mother in Paris had been lovely. Draco had known there was a reason for the trip and he allowed his mother to stew in her words before she spoke. It wasn't as bad as Draco thought it was going to be. She wanted to moved to Paris for a while to get away from London and the stigmata of being a Malfoy. She had already found a home that she wanted to purchase and just needed Draco to okay the funds out of the Malfoy holdings. Draco hated that he had to approve every single purchase of his mother's, but she insisted on it. Draco had been willing to give her enough to live on the rest of her life and put it into a vault, but she hadn't wanted to do that.

Xibby poked Draco in the ribs. Draco looked at the woman in front of him before he closed the final file.

"None of these fit what I want."

"I'm sorry Lord Malfoy these are the only properties for sale in and around London that fit what you asked for." The woman looked very upset at what Draco said. The commision that she would make on a sale like that would be a great deal of money.

"I'll have to change what I want them. I'll contact you when I figure it out." Draco stood up and pushed the folder back to the woman. He held out his hand, and Xibby slipped from her chair and linked her hand with his.

Jibby was clearing everything that Draco wanted out of the Malfoy Manor and taking it to Spencer's to be ready for when Draco found a place for him and his two soulmates. It was slow going of course, but then he had time. It would be a long time before Potter and Granger were going to want to move in. Draco stopped just outside of the Wizarding Realtors and thought about what he really wanted, and he had been thinking Manor which was vastly different than a castle.

"Xibby, can you see if Spitehex is willing to meet with me today?" Draco asked her.

"Of course, Master Draco."

Draco found a spot to sit down on a bench in front of Flourish and Blotts, and he resized the book that he was currently reading. A Muggle story about politics that Spencer thoughts that he would enjoy. After Draco had made it through the first quarter of the book, he had been able to really get into it. The discussion about the blue eyes and the substance that was called spice but wasn't anything that was Muggle or Wizarding in comparison had thrown him. Draco could see why Spencer thought he would like it though as the politics of whole book and the series as a whole were very intriguing. It was warmer in the Alley than it was anywhere else. The in and out of the shops made for warming charms. Some businesses used them more than others, but Draco liked to go from shop to shop and not have to worry about taking his cloak on and off. There was a pop beside him, and he looked at what page number he was on before looking to his left at the little Elf that was there.

"Hello, Rael, it's rare to see you out of Reid Manor."

"Master Pen sent me last night to be the person who took Miss Hermione and Lord Potter their dinner."

"Oh, really?" Draco smiled and leaned back. Rael was a very small Elf, her family line of Elves was always very small. Draco had felt like he would break her by touching her. Spencer had acquired her as part of a Wergild from the Ministry for their failure on protecting him before he was forced to kill his father. She had been a very timid little thing before Spencer had started to educate her on what he wanted from her. Spencer though had always said that her bond wasn't as strong with him as it was with the rest of his Elves. He felt more like Magic wanted him to protect her until it was time for her to find her true master or mistress.

"Miss Hermione's magics were very nice."

"Really?" Draco asked. He crossed his legs and leaned back before he patted his knee. Rael climbed into his lap before moving to sit on his knee. She sat there like she would on a horse while riding sidesaddle. Rael frowned for a few seconds before she sighed and a small glass of what looked like iced tea appeared in her hands. Draco kept his laugh to himself. Spencer hated Draco for introducing iced tea to his Elves, as well as iced coffee.

"I talked to Master Pen about it. He not sleep well last night. He said it's sometime to do with his soulmate. Something about his magics acting weird and he can feel it's because of his soulmate."

"I see. I'll keep an eye on him tonight. Maybe if he has trouble sleeping tonight, you can come and get me."

"Sleepover?" Rael asked.

Draco allowed himself to laugh at that because it was what all of the Elves had always called it when Draco had illegally apparated to Reid Manor when things were bad at home during the summer and ended up curled up in Spencer's bed.

"Yes, a sleepover."

"I make sure that Nibby makes sure Master Pen in good pyjamas."

"So why are you here talking to me about everything but what it seems you want to talk to me about?" Draco asked.

"Master Pen said that I had to ask you before I offered to bond with Miss Hermione."

Draco looked at the little Elf and frowned at her. She had said that Granger's magics felt good, but Draco hadn't seen that coming. He would adore seeing what Granger said about a House Elf wanting to bond with her. After getting out of Hogwarts Granger had got a very quick lesson on what a House Elf's magic would and wouldn't allow a Master or Mistress to do to them. Dobby had stayed at long as he had with the Malfoys because of Draco. Draco had never had the nerve to ask Potter what happened to the Elf. Spencer had said that Granger lived with her parents so he had no clue what Rael would do for her.

"You think that she's the one for you?" Draco asked.

"Yes. She feels really good, kind of like you do, but Lord Potter feels the same way. You two feel alike while she feels like a furnace. I didn't like leaving, so I made them think that I left and cleaned up. Lord Potter's flat is very...lonely. He's not happy at all, and he doesn't like it there, but he doesn't want to leave either. Mistress Hermione feels the same way when I followed her to her childhood home this morning. They need something more to feel alive, and I make sure at least that Mistress Hermione has it."

"You'll be a wonderful Elf for her." Draco looked around to see that no one was really that focused on them but this was not the time and place to tell her about his soulmates. Draco felt for them.

"Spitehex tells you to come after lunch," Xibby said as she appeared in the spot where Rael had been sitting.

"Good. Your sister promised me a good lunch today if I could convince Spencer to eat breakfast. I got him to eat breakfast so let's see what kind of lunch Libby has cooked up for us." Draco had wondered about why Libby had promised him a spectacular lunch for getting Spencer to eat breakfast. Draco picked up Rael and set her down before he stood up and allowed the two Elves to pop him back to Spencer's Manor.

Spencer's soulmate was a very touchy topic. Draco had been the one to help him come to terms with what happened when he turned seventeen, but Spencer had never shared the man's name with him. Draco had been tempted several times to get Spencer drunk and get the name from him, but he wouldn't know what to do with it. Spencer saw it as his soulmate was happy and in love, with someone else, the best thing that he could do was allow his soulmate to be happy with the life that he wanted and not the life that fate forced on him. At one point, Draco had wondered if it was Potter because that man was gone on Ginny, but Spencer had admitted the man was over five years older than them and one of the fighters in the war.

There were a lot of fighters in the war, and more than one of them was in a steady relationship. There was, of course, Potter who Draco thought more and more that Spencer was right and he was under the effects of a love potion, but the thing was that none of the potions that were typical acted like Potter was acting. Draco understood now what Spencer meant by the fact that he didn't care about himself.

Draco's world had shifted when he had read the words in his father's hand about who he was destined to be with. Drac wanted them both happy. None of them had a happy life growing up, Granger's had been the best, but it was still not the best with being best friends with the one person in the United Kingdom that had a target painted on their back from the day they were born. Draco knew that Potter's life couldn't be that good. One didn't have as much money as Potter did and live in the place that he was.

Fate put people together who made each other better and Draco wanted the chance to show them both that he was different now, he was better. Free of his father's influence Draco knew that he could be a better person. He had slowly been becoming a better person since making friends with Spencer. The changes had been more dramatic has he had seen the aftermath of the war and what it did to everyone.

The purity of one's blood no longer matter to Draco, and he understood why magic created Muggle-borns, to begin with. Magic did what she wanted but seeing what had become of the Gaunts and how it had created Tom Riddle had opened Draco's eyes to his father's politics.

"I can smell smoke," Qan said loudly.

Draco shook his head to clear himself of his thoughts and saw that all of the Elves were seated around the table. Nibby was sitting down with a plate in front of her looking almost done eating. She ate fast as she had to make sure that she was able to keep up with the rest. Tibby was on one side with an empty seat between him and Paddy. Qan was on the other side of him. On the other side of the table was Xibby, Jibby, and Quirinus making up the other side. Rael stepped up to her seat and took it beside Quirinus. It was homey to Draco now after so many years. Bast was away at St. Mungo's where she lived helping to take care of Diana Reid. Draco thought about the fact that soon three of the Elves would be leaving the house but he doubted that the lunches together were going to stop. There was a reason that Spencer had such a large house.

"Smoke?" Draco asked.

"From you thinking too hard."

The rest of the Elves broke out in laughter as trays of food appeared on the table before Libby stepped out and took a seat beside her brother.

"You know that you could just give in to the urge and bond with me if you really want to keep insulting me for the rest of my life," Draco said.

"Master Snake be horrible for me, and Master Spence needs an asshole to take care of the people that he don't want to talk to. You asshole enough that no one will force you to talk to them. You not need me. You can train Jibby to be an asshole."

Draco started to plate up his food, grabbing a chicken breast with his fork before anyone else could. He had learned to get what he wanted early. While Libby always made sure there was enough, Qan was good at grabbing the best cuts of meat. Draco heard the growl from the Elf as he missed grabbing the breast that he wanted.

The Elves talked about the gossip from various sources as well as the fact that Lady Haley Hotchner was due to go into labour any day and the Elves were very upset at how they were being treated. Draco heard the name of Queenie but wasn't sure who that was as he paid no attention to Lord Aaron Hotchner's life as the man had been the epitome of Gryffindor. Loyal as a fault to England to the point that he had almost been thrown in jail for trying to fight what the Ministry was doing to Half-bloods and Muggle-borns during the war. He had been how the Ministry had been found out to be taken over. He had been the one to pull Hogwarts out of the hands of Death Eaters before the end of the war. Personally, Draco had no issues with the man, but he was stern, and Draco tried to not talk to him at all if he could help it.

Draco shivered as he felt an Owl crossing over the wards of the Manor. That meant that it was Spencer or someone else who was actually allowed to send mail. He heard the wings flap before a letter landed beside him on the table. The owl took off before Draco could even pick it up but he knew the owl well, it was from Gringott's.

The note was short, and it only had a direction for him to walk out from a certain tree at the edge of the Reid Manor's lands. It was signed with Spitehex's signature as well as his seal and the magic on the letter was his.

"Xibby, what did you tell Spitehex when you went to talk to him?" Draco asked.

"I told him that all of the Manors the lady showed us were not good enough for you and your mate. I not tell him about two mates. I told him you wanted a massive home and lands enough for three Quidditch pitches."

"Three?"

"Then you miss mate not have to watch you two get into seeker fights and won't have to see the land that much."

Draco narrowed his eyes at Xibby, she had gone above and beyond, and Draco was glad of it but the fact that she knew that Granger hated Quidditch meant that Xibby had been spying or having Rael spy. He let his Elf so what she wanted though because it had never served him wrong to let them do what they wanted, even when they were Spencer's wholly.

"Rael, if you want to go to Miss Hermione and offer her a bond you may. I don't know that she will accept it at first. She's very Muggle in her understanding, but she's a good person and would love you. You might have to give her time."

"Thank you," Rael said, and she started to bounce in her seat.

Draco had no clue if Potter had any Elves but Granger having at least one would be helpful.

"Xibby, Jibby, I would like the both of you to come with me when I go to meet Spitehex. Which I am to walk to it seems but it does not tell me how far we are going?"

"Which tree?" Quirinus asked, and Draco just looked at him. "There are four trees planted on the grounds. Master Spence had them instilled with Goblin magic to grow very fast but be part of what wards the grounds after his father died. Each tree is named. Angmar is to the north, Erebor is to the east, Minas Tirith is to the south, and to the west is Bree."

Draco had no clue what the hell those names were from but probably from a Muggle book of some kind or even four different ones if he knew Spencer.

"Erebor."

"The Lonely Mountain named so because directly to the east of us is a large castle with grounds that have sat empty and in Goblin control for one hundred and seventy-one years as of today, which now is how long Smaug had control of the Lonely Mountain."

"Smaug, that stupid dragon from that book series where Spencer got the name for Sauron?"

"Yes. All of the names of the trees come from things from Middle-Earth. I'm shocked that Master Draco remembers where Sauron got his name."

As if saying his name drew him into the room, Draco heard the hiss of Spencer's familiar Sauron. The snake wound up Draco's chair leg and shrunk to settle into his lap. Sauron had been staying by the fire in the sitting room that Spencer mostly lived in and Draco wondered if it was because of what was going on with Spencer's magic. Draco had got out of the habit of asking about him over the past two weeks as Spencer would just ignore the question. Spencer's mood was greatly affected by his familiar and vice versa.

After the meal was cleaned up after, Draco headed out with his two Elves. He trusted in Xibby knowing where they were going so he followed behind. The two were very chatty as they talked about the property. He felt when they left the bounds of the wards on the Manor, and there was Spitehex.

"I forgot how far out his lands are. I think that you will like his property, Lord Malfoy. For you and your mate."

Draco looked at Spitehex. The goblin was bound to keep Malfoy secrets as long as they harmed no one.

"Mates. I have two, and those two have varied interests from me and even from each other."

"The property that I want you to look at has strict wards on it as it's been the sight of many...jaunts on the illegal side with young Witches and Wizards. I will have to bring you over the ward boundary which is just enough to walk between as that is all that the legalities force when it comes to magical properties that are this close. These two lands are actually mirrored images of each other. Many hundreds of years ago a set of twins settled the land, and they married they had the Goblins make the land mirror images from the size of the property to the placements of the homes. While the house on this land was destroyed and rebuilt a castle three hundred years ago, they are still in the same spot. The Goblins are well aware of the almost brotherly relationship between you and Lord Reid. So when Xibby came to talk to me about these things I knew that this was the only one that I wanted to show you. Now Xibby said that when it comes to bedrooms, you are looking for something very specific."

"With a soulmate triad, I know that there is not going to be all of us sleeping in the exact same bed every night. I wanted something that would allow for four rooms, one larger for all of us and separate bedrooms out from the main one. How many wings does the castle have?"

"FOur. One is very much the master wing and would allow for something like that while the other three wings are smaller."

"So I could move into one of the small wings and then invite my mates to live in other wings while we got settled?"

"That is rare in soulmate triads."

"Yes, well...I need a vow on your magic before I reveal who my mates are."

Draco listened as Spitehex gave it willingly. Many would hate that Draco would ask for it, but Goblins held no higher magic than the one that bonded soulmates. The Goblins had their own book that told them their mates if they had them.

As soon as they were across the lands, Draco looked at what he could see, and he could see the castle.

"I'll take it."

"The names?" Spitehex asked.

"Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."

The look of utter shock on the Goblin's face almost forced Draco to laugh. Almost. He kept it in though to not disrespect the Goblin. Still, he would show Spencer the memory and then laugh his ass off them.

"At least the library will be big enough for Miss Granger."

* * *

Hermione was staring at the door of her office because the whole of the law firm was in an uproar about something and she didn't like the noise. She had shut the door just ten minutes after getting into the office. Rael had brought Hermione her lunch just as she had been leaving the building where she was taking her classes. The original school for education had been damaged in the war, and the wards were acting up, and so far the Ministry hadn't cared too much about asking the Goblins to help so instead they were forced to allocate various magical buildings for that kind of stuff. Malfoy had even given up a few empty buildings that he owned to it. Rael had given her a wrap that had been so good, stuffed with raw veg and meat and some kind of sauce that had been so good that Hermione had moaned in public. She had eaten it while walking to the law firm.

Rael appeared in front of Hermione, scaring enough that she squeaked.

"Rael?"

"Miss Hermione. What do you know about me?"

"Umm..." Hermione looked at the Elf before she waved her into a chair in front of the desk. Hermione came around to sit in the one beside it. "You are Lord Reid's Elf."

"I was not one of the ones that he found for himself. I was part of what the Goblins forced the Ministry to give to him as part of a Wergild to make up for what the Ministry did to the House of Reid. Master Spence always knew that I wasn't going to stay with him but just until the time came that I found someone that my magics really liked."

"You speak very well."

"Master Spence gets us tutors for talking. He found it disgusting that many never give Elves education that even small humans get. He thinks it an insult to his House that we be forced to be stupid when we are the ones who most talk to people. He allows us to be assholes to people who are assholes to us."

Hermione bit her lip because seeing the tiny Elf say the word asshole was kind of adorable.

"He's a very good master to you isn't he?"

"He much better than the ones I had before. I small so not many actually want me. Master Spence want me but understand that I have found my new person. My magics really like them. So I want to offer them my bond. Master Spence's bond with me is just enough to keep me alive but easy for me to break and it not hurt either one of us."

"Why are you telling me this?" Hermione asked.

"Master Spence and Master Draco tell me you be the smartest Witch of your age, Miss Hermione. I don't knows that I believe them."

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"You who I want to bond with."

"I don't have the money to pay Spencer for your bond, Rael." Hermione looked at the Elf in utter shock. She had learned that the majority of Elves were happy where they were. While they were not paid for their services to their Masters and Mistresses in monetary means, they were given the magics of their bonded and food and a place to sleep. Hermione had seen after the war House Elves dying because they did not wish to be parted from their now dead masters. She had been terrified of the pain that they went through as they died of magic starvation.

"Master Spence not make you pay. He didn't need the Wergild in the first place, he got his revenge in other ways. He kept me because forcing me to go elsewhere would hurt his pride. Master Spence has a lot of pride. Seeing me happy would be all the payment that he needs. You not going to make me unhappy are you?"

Hermione looked at the Elf and wondered precisely what Spencer had taught her because that sentence was very much something that she could see Spencer saying.

"You would have sorted to Slytherin wouldn't you?" Hermione asked.

"All of Master Spence's Elves probably would have. Except for Quirinus, he is a Ravenclaw. Bast might have sorted to Hufflepuff but she stronger now."

"I've not met Bast." Hermione tried to think if she had missed the name when all of the Reid elves had been talked about by Spencer.

"She be with Mistress Diana at St. Mungo's. She was Mistress Diana's personal Elf and helps care for her. Bast only one who can calm her down sometimes."

"So how does this work?" Hermione asked. She had never thought that she could every buy a House Elf even though she understood that she was basically paying not for the Elf themselves but the knowledge and skills that they had. She just couldn't do it nor did she ever think that she would have the money to buy one. She hadn't looked up the bonding spell.

"It be easy. Master Draco has bonded with Xibby and Jibby recently."

"Why?" Hermione had heard nothing of that, but then Spencer wasn't exactly the most talkative when it came to Malfoy. She understood that they were friends, but she still had a hard time seeing the sweet Spencer has friends with him.

"Elf magics know when someone is compatible. Miss Nibby had four children. Tibby is Spencer's personal elf, and she had been his Nanny Elf. Libby's magics really like Master Spencer's but Xibby, and Jibby's didn't, but they liked Master Draco's. They just be waiting for Master Draco to be ready to take over the whole bond. They were sort of bonded as they have been the ones to take care of Master Draco's room and make sure that Mistress Cissa be okay. Now Master Draco getting ready to move into his new home and he needs Elves. Old Malfoy Elves are still kind of more loyal to the House of Malfoy than Draco, so they bonded to Mistress Cissa and not Draco."

Hermione made a mental note to find books on House Elf bonds and what exactly Rael was talking about. She needed to not be lacking at all.

"My parents would be uncomfortable with a House Elf living with them. I don't know where you would stay."

"I can stay at Master Spence's until you find a place to live. Or even with Lord Potter."

"Why do you call him that?" Hermione asked.

"He's not asked me to call him anything else. Master Spence tried to get us to call him Spence again after he became of age, but our magics does not allow it as he fully adult. So, Master Spencer, it became. Like you are Mistress Hermione, but I can get away with calling you Miss Hermione. It's all very complicated. Master Spence has a book on it. You want to borrow it?" Rael looked excited about it and before Hermione could answer she was gone from the room.

Two minutes later, Rael appeared in front of her again with a stack of shrunk books in her hand.

"Quirinius had these ready for me. All of the books that he has on House Elves and everything to do with us, even medical care."

"Oh, thank you." Hermione took them from her and stood up to slip them into her bag that held all of her school books. She looked at the paperwork on her desk and then back at the Elf. As much as she wanted to keep on talking she had work that she had to do. "I need to get back to work, Rael. I do adore talking to you."

"Rael know you are busy. Give me your hand." Rael held out her hand, and Hermione slipped her into the Elf's. Hermione felt her magic expanding, and then it snapped inside of her, and she could feel Rael inside of her body. It was the most surreal feeling she had ever had. "Wizards make a big deal out of words and the things that we Elves care not for. You magic opened to me, and I allowed myself to bond with you. It's as simple as that."

"I'll read these as I have time."

"I know. Now, Lord Potter's house is a mess. He needs help and he forcing Dobby to not be there. I go and make the house pretty." Rael was gone before Hermione could tell that Harry probably would like that. She wondered how Rael had as much freedom as she did to enter there. The House Elf magic was different from Witches and Wizards, and she needed to learn more.

There was a knock on the door before it opened. She looked at Newt Boyles. He looked very flustered.

"We need you in a meeting, now."

"Yes, Sir." Hermione grabbed her notepad and stood up.

Newt looked around like she was shocked to see her alone. Hermione wondered what he felt when Rael had bonded with her. There was no way that the magic hadn't been felt by him.

"Where is your new Elf?"

"She going to do her level best it seems to make Harry feel like he's the dirt under her shoes by cleaning his flat."

Newt smiled at her and Hermione wondered what that was about. Newt had never given her the time of day after he had extended the internship offer.

"One of my personal Elves is going to see of the moving of your office."

"Why?"

"Because it's been pressed upon me that you are someone that I want on my side instead of on the opposite. The briefs that you have written up read like something that one of my solicitors who has been here a decade would write. I want to see what you can do when given a chance to expand your wings so to speak. This meeting that I need you at, you are not going as Miss Granger, Intern at Boyles but as Hermione Granger, smartest member of the Golden Trio."

Hermione had no clue what the difference was, but she nodded her agreement.

"Your new office is going to be on the seventh floor across from mine. My secretary, Ashton will make sure that it's all set up." Newt turned on his heel and left, leaving Hermione to scramble after him. He was waiting in the elevator for her and held it open. Hermione said nothing as they went up to the seventh floor. Hermione had no clue what the hell was going on, but she was sure that most of it rested in the fact that Spencer had made friends with her. Spencer and Malfoy were two of the biggest people who used the firm and upsetting one upset the other so she could see him getting upset if she was treated like shite.

The conference room that she was led to was filled with a bunch of older men who Hermione knew were the principal solicitors for all of the big names in the firm. Newt was the chief solicitor for the Houses of Reid and Malfoy, and he handled them and a third that she had never figured out who it was. Newt directed her to a seat that was beside him but not at the table. She was not the only woman in there. There were five women, and all of them were solicitors that Hermione knew brought in a great deal of reputation and money to the firm.

"There is no reason that we should be brought in on a matter like this, Newt," one of the men said who looked to be about fifteen years older than Newt. "A Pure-blood woman giving a harmless love potion to a Half-blood male is for those on the fifth floor."

"Even when it's one of our clients?" one of the women asked.

"Newt won't even tell us who the damned person is. Can't be that important. Though why we aren't representing the Pure-blood is beyond me."

"The Weasley's don't have the money to afford even an intern of ours," Newt said.

Hermione dropped her notebook, and she looked at the note. There was only a single female Weasley beside Molly and Arthur was not a Half-blood.

"Now you understand why you are here, Hermione. Lord Reid has paid the retainer for us to go after Ginevra Weasley with all that we have. While Lord Potter is not aware of the relationship that this firm has with the Potter's, it's been pressed upon me that he was not raised to understand anything to do with the way that the world works for Wizards of his standing. I'll be making sure that it's corrected."

"How the hell was it figured out that someone was potioning him?"

"He has a soulmate. Lord Reid found that out in the course of his work and told me to tell him. I also found out that I have a soulmate as well. We have not gone to the Book to check. How is he, Sir?"

"After the meeting is done, you'll be going as our representative to talk to him, but last I heard he was asleep. Lord Reid is guarding him like the dragon that he is and I kind of hope that Miss Weasley goes to see him before we can find her. Lord Reid would kill her, and the mess will be sorted." Newt grabbed a glass of water and filled it form a pitcher. A stand appeared between him and Hermione, he set the glass down on it. "This firm has many Half-bloods that it represents and I want to see that number go up. We need to embrace the fact that it's going to happen."

"What the hell is this?" several of the older men said at the same time.

"Lord Reid and Lord Malfoy have both come to me with the fact that if we do not represent all wizards and witches who can afford us, they will go elsewhere. While the new Lord Malfoy has not brought us many clients his father did, and most of them are dead or in jail. Our world is changing, and all that clinging to old ideals is going to get us it no clients. Right now if Lord Reid and Lord Malfoy leave, there is only a single family that will stick with is, and that's because no one tells him what to do. Lord Hotchner likes fairness, but I think that after a while even he would leave us for greener pastures if we go down in reputation. That's what their money buys is our reputation. If you will not stick with the new edict of this firm, you can leave."

Hermione watched as several of the older men left without a single word. Whether they were actually going to leave the firm was yet to be determined.

"Hermione, you will be going as our representative. I know that Lord Potter is very untrustworthy, but if Lord Reid is right about what he suspects of childhood, I can understand why. I have already had a talk with your professors, and they will make sure that you can make up all work that is missed. You will be added on with the pay of a junior solicitor. You will stay in contact with me and me alone about what is happening with Lord Potter. As much as he will allow you to say. I will handle making sure that Miss Weasley is found and put in jail."

"Sir, how did Lord Reid come to be involved in this?"

"He is the one that gave Lord Potter the flushing draught that got rid of the love potion in his body. Given the reaction that Lord Potter had, he has been given the potion for many years. He's going to be in St. Mungo's for a while overcoming this. I have been in contact with the Ministry about his spot in the Auror training, and it will be held."

"Why have you never approached Harry before now?"

"I assumed that he wanted nothing to do with the firm. I've not taken money for anything more than the managing of the contracts for the lands that Lord Potter owns that are rented to others. The Goblins have been maintaining most of his money and have made sure that no one takes advantage of him. Lord Reid told me that Lord Potter doesn't understand much of his place in this world and I will see that corrected, even if it's just teaching you and you making him do it. Lord Malfoy said that it was the best way to make sure that Lord Potter does what is needed of him for things like this." Newt smiled at her with a fond look on his face which was woefully out of place on it. "Go dear and make sure that he is taken care of. The head Healer in charge of his care is named Christina Stout, and she's good at what she does and cares nothing about her patient except that they get healthy. She healed Death Eaters so that they could stand trial. She will take care of your Harry."

Hermione nodded and stood up. She didn't know what to do first. She really didn't. She needed to go see Harry, and she needed to tell their friends. Hermione stopped because the only real friends that they had were each other. Ginny was the one who had done this to him, so the Weasley's were out the question. Neville should have been with Harry, but she had no clue how Harry had been given a flushing draught to start off.

"Might I suggest going and getting clothes for him to wear, things he likes to lounge around in. St. Mungo's will allow that," one of the ladies in the room said.

"You can leave from this room. I'd also maybe find your Elf to make sure that she takes care of the both of you?" Newt offered.

Hermione concentrated on Harry's flat, the place she felt most safe since the end of the war. Rael would be needed and so would Dobby. If she didn't tell Dobby, he would be distraught, if he hadn't felt it already. Hermione wondered if Harry being under the potion was the issue that had caused Harry to send Dobby out to help others, not trusting Ginny with him. Ginny hadn't liked him much to begin with.

"A list. I'll go to Harry's and make a list. Rael is the name of my Elf and Dobby is the name of Harry's. If you need me, get one of them."

Newt nodded, and Hermione apparated away. She appeared at the spot that was used to land to head into Harry's flat. Hermione felt such a rush of anger in her body. She was afraid of what she would do if she ran into Ginny before the Aurors found her.

* * *

Harry cursed Neville silently in his head. Neville had talked him into going into the shop that Luna ran to eat lunch. The food was too good, and Harry had stuffed himself. He felt sleepy. The afternoon was full of things in the training rooms and not desk lessons which Harry was insanely happy for. If he sat at a desk, he was going to go to sleep. He thought about taking a fifteen-minute nap before the afternoon session started up but when he entered the training room with Neville beside him, all thoughts of a nap stopped. There was a group of Unspeakables in the room. One of them was rare, but a group of ten was unheard of in the Auror training rooms.

"This can't be good," Neville said.

"That's one of each of the pairs," Harry said.

One of the Unspeakables looked up and at Harry. None of the others paid the returning partners even a single glance, so Harry wondered who that was. Unspeakables were always the talk of the Ministry, mainly because no one knew who they were or what they did. Harry knew that Lord Reid worked as one but there were a lot of people who did and no one ever knew who was who.

After twenty minutes, all of the Aurors in training were back. The group of Unspeakables turned nearly as one and formed a line that stretched out across the head of the room. Auror Foster stood in the middle of them.

"Today's afternoon lessons are being pushed back a day. After a large discussion that started late last time between a group of Aurors and a group of Unspeakables, a hole in our training has been pointed out to us. Every person reacts to some potions a certain way, and it's almost never the same as anyone else. Aurors use potions a great deal in the field to keep themselves in fit form or even to make sure that they don't die in the middle of a fight. If Auror partners don't know how each other reacts to potions, how can you know if your partner needs more help than normal? That is why the Unspeakables are here. Healers will be arriving in a few minutes as we all know that a few people can have severe reactions to potions. If you do, don't worry you aren't going to be kicked out. A large note will be placed in your file, and if the reaction can be negated with another potion, you will not go into the field without it as well. However, if you can't be treated with it, then your partner knows what to expect when giving it to you and can get you the help you need when it's safe to do so. Me, I'm allergic to one of the ingredients in the Pepper-Up potion, but it's mild enough that I have used it before when I would have passed out otherwise and be in harm's way. My partner was able to find me with my help and get me to a Healer. Whereas without taking it, I would have passed out, he never would have heard me, and I would have died from the injury that I had taken."

The other partner groups shifted on their feet. There had been no time that they had ever been dosed with things like that, and it was a little weird to be doing it now.

"In the interest of making this so that you aren't taking things that you need. The Unspeakables have brewed the potions needed as well as flushing draughts to be taken after each one when it's found that no reaction is there or if a reaction is there a Healer will be called over to deal with it and not everything."

Harry looked at Neville who at least didn't look up upset. Neville shrugged, and Harry shrugged back. Harry was used to taking potions for things. He had been on a regimen of them to get his body into better health since the end of the war. Thankfully he was off the daily potions and was just on maintenance ones that he took in his Healer's office at his monthly checkups. Ginny had been thrilled to set Harry up with her healer that she had been going to since she was a child. It was a group of them that worked out of the same location and served all of the needs that a patient would need. Harry raised his hand.

"Yes, Auror Potter?"

"I take nutrient supplements and other things for bone and organ health."

One of the Unspeakables stepped forward. "We have tailored the flushing draught to not take effect on those lines of potions that are taken for health reasons. Women need not worry about potions taken for menses either."

Harry looked out of the corner of his eye as the five women that were in training with him lowered their hands. Harry knew that women who spent time together could sync up their periods but he hadn't thought about working together like this would do it, but it would explain why they asked Neville to bring them chocolate every few weeks from the shop. Harry needed to remember to have some of those things that Hermione used for hers with him if they were going anywhere for an extended trip like the two-week camping/training exercise.

"Each pair has an Unspeakable that has personally brewed the potions you are going to be given, they will take a vow if you wish them to and will reveal themselves." Auror Foster looked at Harry as he said this and that told everyone that it was something that they were taking seriously but usually only because Harry refused to take anything given to him by anyone unless it was a Healer. After a protego had gone wrong in a training exercise and a stationary wooden fighting dummy had been thrown across the room and crashed into Harry, breaking his arm in three places, everyone knew that. Harry had refused the potions from many of the older Aurors who carried things like that one them all of the time.

"Spread out and be prepared for privacy wards to be erected. Diagnostic spells will go up that will track everything that happens inside of the ward for notes in your file, but no one else needs to see the reactions that you have," the one Unspeakable who had spoken before said.

Harry wandered to the corner of the room that was farthest from the door and from everyone else. The same Unspeakable that had talked to them as a whole wandered over to them. Harry tried to see if he knew the person by the way that they walked or even just small mannerisms but the hooded robe that the person wore made it impossible.

The wards went up, and Harry shuddered at the feel of them. He could see outside, but none of the rest of the groups was visible anymore. Healers arrived and started to mill around the room. There were twenty of them which meant that each of them had one. Harry did not see his Heale there. In fact, all of the Healers were high up in the St. Mungo's chain of Healers on staff. That was a shock as well.

"Ready?" The Unspeakable asked before lowering the hood. Lord Reid was standing there.

"Yes," Neville said, and his voice sounded relieved. Lord Reid gave Neville a smile before sticking out his hand for a shake. Neville stuck his hand out as well, but instead of shaking it, he pulled Lord Reid in for a hug. Lord Reid looked flustered when Neville finally let him go. Lord Reid looked at Harry and offered his hand. Harry grinned as he just shook the man's hand.

"This flushing draught was made to get rid of anything that is, not health related like I said. The flushing draughts after are going to clear whatever I have given you. By the end of today, you are going to hate the taste of the flushing draughts because we are going to not just track single potions but combinations that are used together regularly. We are going to do each one on its own first and then start to combine after that. Now if there is anything that you regularly take at any point in your life, we can see how things react to it but remember that even simple things can react. Thankfully, outside of severe allergic reactions, no one has ever had a problem with health potions and standard recovery or quick fix potions.

"I've not taken anything besides my standard health potions at the direction of my Healer in months. I've not had a headache in nearly a year, besides the one that I got when I had a training dummy tossed into me."

"Neville?"

"I didn't sleep well last night, so I took a Pepper-Up potion this morning."

"That's okay. I still am going to have both of you taking the flushing draught."

"What if we react to this?" Harry asked.

"Then we have a lot more problems as no one has ever had a reaction to a flushing draught and its base is the same base as a lot of other potions." Lord Reid handed over a vial to each of them. Neville uncorked him, and the cork disappeared as soon as Neville had it all the way off. Harry looked at Lord Reid in shock.

"Our supplies are tailored to go right back to our stores to be cleaned and used again. As soon as it's clear of the vial, all corks go back, and as soon as the potion is out of the vial, it disappears as well. Saves a lot of money on staples. Now if it's broke, it doesn't come back. One of the first spells I ever created."

"That's kind of awesome. When did you come up with it?"

"My fifth year. I was bored." Lord Reid shrugged that off.

Neville downed his potion, and Harry waited to see if there was a reaction. There was none even after a full minute, so Harry pulled the cork free of his vial and marvelled at it disappearing before starting to raise the vial. Harry looked at Lord Reid who looked anxious, not like he had poisoned the vial but like he knew that something was going to happen. Harry wasn't sure what the man was expecting. Harry dumped the whole vial into his mouth before he swallowed. He felt the small puff of magic as the vial disappeared before he could even get his hand down. The potion started to warm up his throat as it went down. Harry didn't know if that was the way it was supposed to feel or not.

"Harry?" Neville asked looking weird.

"Poison?" Harry asked as he felt the wards around him drop.

"Help over here!" Lord Reid yelled.

"No, not a poison. You have something in you that it's flushing out." Neville grabbed Harry's arm as Harry started to feel his legs give out. He had never felt anything like this before in his life. He was warm and cold, and he felt like he would never be anything but too warm and too cold in his life.

The first cramp set on his stomach and Harry doubled over in pain. Harry felt another set of hands on him, and he looked at Lord Reid.

"You knew."

"No, I suspected and when you are awake, and over the effects of what is happening to you, I will explain it all as well as why I did it this way."

"Spectacle." Harry had his back to the rest of the room, but he could hear the voices that were everywhere.

"Sometimes the only way to make sure that something doesn't go away is to make it a spectacle. I'm sorry to say that in your case, Harry, you will need this to be a spectacle to make sure that you get what you need in all of this."

"I've seen this before," Neville said.

"When?" Harry asked.

"When I was visiting Mom and Dad, I saw someone going through something like this, but they didn't...Harry your pores are leaking blood."

"Not his blood," Lord Reid said.

"You called me Harry."

"I think that the time to be formal has gone full out of the way, don't you?"

"Yes, Spencer." Harry looked down at his arm as his whole body started to cramp. He felt little pain just the knowledge that his body was not under his control. "Whose blood?"

"The person who potioned you. I have a list of potions that it can be. Don't worry I won't let anyone give you anything else unless you absolutely have to have it. My personal Elf, Tibby is going to go with you St. Mungo's until we can find Dobby."

"How do you know about Dobby?"

"He used to be Draco's. Draco wanted him safe, and he started to talk to him about the famous Harry Potter and how Harry Potter needed a friend. He wasn't expecting the Elf to take his job as your protector that seriously but he did. The hope of youth. I'll find Dobby so that his Harry Potter is not alone, but Tibby will keep you company until that time."

"Thank you," Harry said, and he felt his whole body shiver, and he leaned forward because he felt like he needed to puke.

"Don't fight what your body wants," Spencer said.

Harry leaned over more and puked out everything that he had eaten as well what looked like everything that he had eaten for months. There was blood in it as well.

"Not your blood, remember. All of your organs are collecting the other blood and flushing it out through whatever means possible. Skin is easier because there is a lot of it, but inside it's easier to just shove it through your normal system of waste. The Healers at St. Mungo's will take care of the end result from the waste system but what's in your stomach has to come out some way and well puking is so easy. Neville hold him."

Harry felt his arms start to shake and he knew that it wasn't at its worst yet. It felt like he was going to be like this forever. Harry forced his head to look at Spencer.

"You know who my soulmate is, don't you?"

"I do, and it's not GInny."

"I love-" Harry stopped because those words felt forced and he couldn't make them come out. He groaned as a cramp gripped his stomach again. Harry puked and tried not to think about how much blood there was in it as well as how much blood was coming out like sweat. He was covered in it from what he could see of his soaked clothes. The truth of everything was smack in Harry's face, but he couldn't think about it at the moment. He knew who had potioned him, but he didn't know when.

"Don't try and speak," Spencer whispered.

"How long?"

"How long what?" Neville asked.

"How long have I been given this?"

"Too long," Spencer whispered in Harry's ear, for him and him alone. "No one noticed, or no one cared. Except it hurt one close to you who is your mate but they kept their mouth shut because they would rather have you in any way they can get than to never have you at all."

"Don't let them get me," Harry said. Neville made an inquisitive noise. It wasn't hard to figure out that Ginny had been potioning him for years but it wasn't just her that he was scared of.

"No one is going to have access to you except for your Elf, my Elf, Healers, and Hermione. I will make sure of it. Now in a few seconds, you are going to start to feel extremely sleepy. The draught wants to purge the rest, but you are better off passed out for it. So don't fight it."

Harry nodded and looked Neville. Neville pulled Harry close.

"Don't worry," Neville said. Harry allowed Neville to pull him to where he was leaning against his partner. "I'll protect you."

Harry nodded and slumped down into Neville all the way and let the sweeping darkness take him.


	5. Chapter 4

# Chapter 4

_October 4, 2000_

Draco settled back on the couch in Spencer's library. He had spent all of the afternoon and most of the evening walking the grounds of his new castle. Draco knew that if Potter and Granger denied him, he would be alone in the castle but he couldn't not buy it because it was perfect. The grounds were massive and sprawling. There was plenty of room for a pitch to be set up so that he and Potter could at least play a few games of catch the snitch when they wanted. It was even on the other side of a massive tree line so that it wasn't visible from the castle. There was a garden set up that was overgrown, but Draco would make sure that it was perfect as soon as it was possible. He would have to see about finding an Elf that was as knowledgeable as Qan was in gardens and maybe use Qan until he could find one. The asshole Elf would adore the chance to boss Draco around, and Draco would love the chance to call him horrible names.

 

The library was one of the largest that Draco had ever see and that included that one in the Muggle movie that Spencer forced him to watch something about a woman and a beast. Granger would love it. There were a lot of older books already on the shelves, held in stasis spells to preserve them through the ages. Every single shelf had spells like that, and the work had held up through the years.

A team of goblins was making sure that the wards were in perfect condition before Draco moved in which could be days or weeks. The information said that the wards hadn't been checked in twenty years, but that wasn't that strange as the properties that the Goblins held in trust were usually only checked once every fifty years.

"Master Draco need a book?" Quirinus asked as he entered the room.

"No, thank you. I just really like the feel of this room."

"Master Spencer like the feel of it too. He says it's my love of books that makes it feel like this. I imbue the room with love. I think it's because of the love he has for his mother and their time in this room. Or it's a mix. Xibby said that you bought a castle?"

"It's perfect for me and my two soulmates. Enough room for all of us to move in together before we are ready for a full relationship. There are four wings, and the fourth can stay empty until we are all ready for a true relationship. The other three wings will be used by us as we get to know each other."

"Jibby said that the library already has a lot of books. Quirinus can go over and check them out when you want. Make sure that they are all safe and good."

"Thank you. I can make sure that you all have access as soon as the Goblins get it fully checked over."

Draco watched as the Elf wandered over to a stack of books and opened up the first one. It had to be a new batch of books that Spencer had bought or had someone find for him. Draco let his mind wander to whatever it wanted which was the fear that neither of his mates would ever accept him. Granger had seemed shocked by how he had acted that day with the cloak but Spencer reported that she was wearing it every day. Granger had blossomed into a lovely young woman who if she were a Pure-blood would have many going after her. Draco knew that more than her fair share of Muggle-borns and Half-bloods from all ages tried to get her to talk to them. Draco tried to keep his jealousy down.

Soulmates were gifts from magic, and Draco knew that it would take a little while for Granger and Potter to fully understand Draco's mind on that. Draco had been taught by his mother to always protect his soulmate. He had not asked her if she knew about his mates because he was afraid of what she would say. As good of a mother, as she was, she had been in love with his father for most of her life. While it was only when Riddle had returned the last time that Lucius Malfoy had turned into a horrible man. That love was still there in some way, shape, or form and it was hard to think that his mother might have kept that knowledge from Draco to make sure that he never sought them out and draw Riddle's eye to them more than it already was.

Draco already knew of the gifts that he wanted to give to the both of them to show that he was willing to court them to gain their affection and their love. He had two copies of a book that outlined the courting rituals and things between soulmates. The book had been written by a Half-blood and kept things neutral when it came to bloodlines, but as Draco was the oldest male in the triad, he was the one that was needed to start everything.

There was still the visit to the book that Draco needed to do. He just wanted to go with Granger and Potter. To have them all three see it at the same time. It would be better that way but getting them to agree to go with him at all was going to be hard. Draco would do anything to make them happy, except for make a fool of himself. He would not humiliate himself to gain their love. Draco understood the pull of soulmates more than anyone else. Looking over most of his interactions with both of them over the years, Draco realised that the bond had started from nearly the first instant that Potter and he had met in Madam Malkin's. Unable to understand what it was, Draco started to act out to get any attention from them.

When Granger had punched him, Draco had felt something that he had never felt before and had been unable ever to feel it again. He still wasn't sure what the hell it was, probably a feedback from the very fragile bond between them. Draco knew then as well what happened when Potter had tried to use sectumsempra on him. It had been Snape's spell that he had created and he had taught to to Draco as a last resort to save his life. Draco had just figured that Potter had been unable to keep the magic needed in his core to cast it and that's why it never landed. The bond had to have been strong enough to stop the both of them from doing something that would have destroyed the ability to bond together at a later time. Hormones fueled by two seemingly proud young men as well as a very weak bond meant that they were not always in control of what they did when they were together.

"Draco?" Spencer called out. Spencer had a charm built into his Manor that worked like a Muggle intercom system. Draco pushed his magic into the charm thread that was weaved into the house, and it would tell Spencer where he was. Draco pushed himself up to his feet. He had the architect plans for his castle spread out on the desk that Spencer had given him to use for things. Draco had been doing most of his work at it for classes, but he was given a small reprieve from them and would work extra hard over the next few weeks to make them.

"Hello," Draco said as Spencer entered the room.

"Hello," Spencer said back with a wicked look on his face. He had a single sheet of paper in his hand, and he slammed that down in front of Draco on the desk. A few loose bits of paper fluttered off, but Draco didn't say them any mind. The paper that Spencer had slammed down had the letterhead of St. Mungo's on it. Draco knew it well. It was the listing of a spell that had been done. Draco read over the contents of the paper and realised that it was the breakdown of what was found to be in a potion. Draco was damned good at potions and had created only a single one while in school, but this was no potion that he knew. It was blood-based which made it hairline illegal. It was however seemingly crossed with a love potion. There was a lot in the potion that Draco would have never stuck in one, but it seemed to balance itself out. Unlike most love potions the extra ingredients would tempt the obsession that most got when under the effects of a potion for a long time.

"This is...very interesting. Who the hell created this?"

"That's unknown at this point as we are assuming who gave it to the intended victim. The victim woke up after the second flushing draught was given to them and I was told that I could talk to his soulmate about this and only his soulmate. He wanted his soulmate to know that he hadn't meant to ignore him for years. He's worried that being forced to love someone else would make his soulmate hate him and not want him."

"Then his soulmate doesn't deserve him," Draco said. He could never think of turning away Potter or Granger for something like that. Draco looked up at Spencer. "Potter?"

"Yes. This is what he's been given for at least four years. It's a masterful bit of brewing. I've already got samples of it. He's been given it near weekly, and after talking to Neville a little, Harry has weekend dates with Weasley. Neville insisted on wards going up and other than Healers only Hermione is allowed into the room. Boyles sent her as his legal representative. I made sure that Boyles understood that Harry isn't going to trust anyone but her at the moment and even Neville understands that he might not trust him a lot either."

"How is Boyles taking this?"

"Not well at all. Harry mentioned that he has been seeing a Healer and getting health potions to rectify as yet unspecified issue with his health. He had to have passed to make it into the Auror program, but everything is going to come out. Every single spell that he's been hit with, every potion he's been given will be laid to bare by the time that the healers are done with him. There is not a single thing that I won't know by the time I am done. I've been charged with dissecting this potion and finding a better antidote than just a flushing draught. I have no other active projects at this moment. While it's pretty simple to deduce that the Weasley bint is the one that has been giving it to him, we are unsure if she could actually brew it and given that it's at least four years, that means when she was still in school. So whoever has been brewing it for her will be charged as well."

"Have they..." Draco didn't want to ask it. He didn't want to know, but he needed to know. He would make sure that Harry had everything that he needed to get over this. To get over everything if Ginevra had raped Harry. While she was a Pure-blood, he was a Noble, and she would be charged with a lot of things for the rape of a Lord.

"It was one of the first things that Healer Smythe did. He's still a virgin in all aspects. He's never had or given oral, never had vaginal or anal sex. Which we were all shocked about. He's not pure as he's masturbated but what male his age hasn't? Given that he is bi-sexual, he's probably been masterbating to both sexes and just kept it quiet. I will remind you that he told me I could talk about this with his soulmate, this is the only reason that I am telling you this. I will be spending the night there, and I want to be able to reassure him that his soulmate knows and still wants him." Spencer collapsed into the chair that was across from the desk and closed his eyes. Quirinus left the room quietly, probably to go get Tibby and maybe even some food. Draco knew that all of the Elves saw Spencer as sort of their child and they loved him.

"Do you still have that charmed paper that changes handwriting just enough to mask it?"

"Harry would know your writing?"

"I am unsure but Gran-Hermione would." Draco knew that he needed to start thinking of them in that way. "I want to write him a letter that tells him that no matter what I won't reject him."

Draco watched Spencer fling out a hand, and a stack of paper from another room came flying into it. Spencer tossed it on the desk without even opening his eyes. Draco was still kind of jealous at Spencer's control of wandless and silent magic. Draco wasn't the best at it, but with Spencer, it was like breathing.

"Sauron bitching," Paddy said as he entered the room with the snake in his arms. Paddy dropped him into Spencer's lap before huffing and leaving.

"How the hell do they know if he's bitching?" Draco asked.

"Easy, he hisses a lot. He's usually pretty silent around the Elves." Spencer lifted Sauron up and the snake wrapped around his neck before disappearing. "I'll take him to work with me for the night. Might be better anyway. I've heard rumours that Harry's a deduce as well. It would be good to see how far along in the speech he is as well as seeing if he's willing to talk to me in it if he doesn't want anyone else to understand what he's saying."

Draco grabbed one of the Muggle pens that Spencer kept around the house and started to write. Draco liked them better than quills and even used them for his day to day school work. He started to write, telling Harry that he would never turn him away for something that someone else made him do as long as Harry never did it to him.

An hour later, Draco was sealing up the letter and used Spencer's seal set to make sure that Harry didn't recognise the Malfoy seal. Draco had kept it short, telling Harry that his only worry was getting better and that they had a lot to discuss when Harry was up for it. Spencer was asleep on a couch in the corner of the room with Sauron huge and draped over him like a blanket. The first time that Draco had seen them like that, he had been worried, but as time went one, Draco understood what it was more than anything else in the world.

Spencer never had affection when he was young, except from his mother. The Elves had kept their distance in that way. Draco had started to share a bed with him when he stayed over after learning that. It wasn't out of place to see them cuddle on the couches in the house reading either even now. That was something that Draco worried about when it came to Harry and Hermione. Draco wouldn't stop that. Spencer needed touch because he had none form anyone else. Draco just hoped that they understood that while they were fated, he and Spencer had a bond that was deep and true and not unlike brothers. Draco wished that Spencer's soulmate would get his head out of his ass and do what magic needed him to do. Whatever was going on with Spencer's magic had to be rooted in that. Spencer wasn't losing control but Draco knew that he could.

Libby entered the room with a snack on a plate for Draco as well as what looked like something for Spencer to take with him.

"You needs to eat if you going to angst all night. Lord Potter has goods people with him, he has his Dobby, and he has Miss Hermione and her Rael now. Soon he have Master Spence with him again but making yourself sick will not help him if you are needed. So eat and then sleep and then in the morning you can angst again." Libby turned on her heel and marched out of the room like she knew that Draco was going to do what she said because it was logical. Damn Spencer and his love of logic and teaching it to his Elves.

Draco picked up one of the three cakes on the plate, and he felt he small bit of magic that was imbued in it. He knew the cakes well. It had a mild food based sleeping spell on them, and Libby cooked them when Spencer was having trouble sleeping. The spell, unlike the potion, was non-addictive. However, only a House Elf could place it. It was one of the things that Elves were known for.

Grabbing the plate, Draco walked to the window to see the moon shining on the pond that was near the Manor. He ate all three cakes while standing there looking outside. He knew that he would pass out pretty quick, so he walked to the couch on the far side of the room, it was the best in the room. He laid down and felt Xibby start to change him for bed. He had no clue if he was going to wake up there or in his own bed but he didn't care. Sleep was good.

_October 5, 2000_

Hermione felt something move and tried to push at it. It was probably her pillow trying to fall off of the bed again. When she pushed, she hit something hard, and it was not a pillow. Hermione tried to roll over only to realise that she was sleeping sitting up but was leaning over onto something. She made herself sit up, her back protesting it after sleeping like that for what felt like hours. The room was unfamiliar but the body lying in front of her as well as the messy black hair was something that she knew as well as she knew her own face.

"Harry," Hermione whispered as she reached out. She had been the only thing to keep him calm during the night. One of the Healers had tried to throw her out, but Harry's magic didn't like that and had nearly destroyed the room. He stopped as soon as Hermione was allowed back into the room. Hermione was pretty sure that the Healer had been very pissed about that and it was why she was given the worst chair in the world to sleep in.

Spencer had been in and out of the room all night long. Checking on Harry and sometimes taking a reading with magic or applying something to Harry's skin. It never hurt him but it turned colours and Spencer explained that ti was the only way to test out exactly which strain of a plant had been used in some cases. The flushing draughts had removed ninety-nine percent of the love potion that Harry had been given, but that last percent was still in his body, and until Spencer had found out an antidote to it or time evaporated it, there was no way to get the last percent out. Harry was sleeping and had been forced into it by brute force spells. Hermione hated that it had to be done, but when he was awake, his magic tried to protect him from something that wasn't there. The love potion had reeked havoc on Harry's magical core. Once the effects were gone, they would allow him to wake up.

"Harry," Hermione repeated, trying to get him to calm down. he was shifting on the bed, fighting the sleeping spells.

"Hermione," Spencer said from the doorway. Hermione turned to look at him. She watched as he turned to the door and put the strongest wards on it possible and made sure that no one was going to enter. "I've unlocked something that is going to remove the last one percent of the potion in him. It's not an antidote as well...the potion is kind of ingenious. I've already started to work on a regimen to brew other potions like it but not for love potions but for patient health. I've figured out why that last percent isn't being flushed out. The potion isn't just a potion. There are spells on it as well, and it's what I was missing."

"What does the spell do?"

"Spells. Let me first break it all down from start to finish. It's not actually a single potion but four different ones that are blended together perfectly. Which as a feat is impossible. The person who brewed this is brilliant, and I have a test for it now. We are going to be testing every single member of the Ministry for it just to be safe. The love potion on its own is not anywhere near standard; it was made from no potion base that I can find. There is one single issue with it though and that it only forces someone to love someone of the opposite sex. It does not control behaviour at all with the same sex which was why Harry seemed to hate the attention that I was giving you and in turn was flirting with me. The potion was what was making him act like he did that, or I assume that it did."

"This seems like a big plot just to get Harry to marry Ginny."

"I think has to do with control of what Harry has more than Harry himself. I'll get to that more later. Whoever brewed this knows a great deal about Muggle science and the breakdown of all life into cells. The last time that I came in I took some of his hair remember and a fingernail clipping? When I looked at those under the Muggle microscope that I have and subjected it to magic to show me the potion, it was in every single dead cell that made up Harry's hair and nails."

"That's..." Hermione tried to think if knew anyone who could do that.

"It's what I was talking about using it for health potions. That one percent of potion in Harry's cells scattered throughout his body will keep the effects of the potion in him for up to two weeks. So the person would be able to miss a week or so and have no issues. WHat's left in that cell is a perfect mix of all four potions. After brewed, the four potions were subjected to a spell that makes each cell of the potion a perfect mix of ingredients. Then the four potions are mixed, and the same thing happens then. One of each cell of the potion is them merged together."

"A pain potion that means that a small amount of backup is stored in the cells, meaning that those with chronic pain and are a high dose medication can take less of them."

"Exactly. It's quite interesting, and I hate that it was figured out by someone who has used it to harm at least three people."

"Three?" Hermione asked.

Spencer looked shocked at that. He dropped his eyes away from her face, and she could see that he was upset.

"I didn't mean to say three. I meant two, Harry and his soulmate."

"No, I think that you meant to say three. Is there such a thing, three soulmates?"

"It's rare, not impossible. Look, call it sleeplessness. Don't say anything to him until he's fully recovered. I brought a letter from his soulmate."

"Why?"

"Harry was worried that his mate would refuse him after finding out that he had been potioned. I went to his soulmate, and he wrote him a letter detailing what his mate thought. It's not going to be easy for Harry after this, and if making sure that he understands that he has something to look forward to at the end of this is going to help him, I'll do it."

Hermione was shocked about that. It had to have been after Harry had woke violently and a potion had been spilt on her. She had left to get cleaned up. What really shocked Hermione though was that Spencer cared. He went out in the middle of the night to get a letter from someone so that Harry knew that he had someone waiting for him. He had acted more like a friend than anyone else besides Hermione had ever acted toward Harry. It made Hermione want to cry. Rael appeared at her side with a box of tissues. The little Elf had been there with her as much as Hermione allowed her to be. Rael was taking her job of taking care of Hermione and Harry very seriously. It was just another thing that told Hermione that there was a lot more to Spencer than anyone except for maybe Malfoy knew.

"And his mate, why are they staying away?"

"It wouldn't be good for them to show up here. Soulmate bonds are hard to resist, and while it might seem like a good idea to show Harry what he was waiting for him, his mind isn't ready for it yet. He's got a long haul, and his magic could latch onto his mate and then it would be bad."

"I can see that. He could cling too much to the mate and not help himself as much as he needs."

"Yes, so for now he will have you and me and our Elves. Dobby is asleep in the Elf ward for now, and when he's awake, Rael will go to sleep." Spencer walked around Harry's bed and worked on getting the IV out of his arm. Hermione watched as Spencer used wandless magic to stop the saline from the bag from dripping out as he hung up the IV. Hermione smiled as Spencer brushed the hair back from Harry's head. "It's funny that we use Muggle IV's to give saline, but there has been no spell found that can give liquid to someone over a period of time and not flood their system. Before Muggles figured that out, the nurses would have to spell a little bit of water into the body every twenty minutes. It was tedious you know. It made for a lot more nurses being needed during times of upheaval. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would for us to steal the idea from Muggles and use their methods. Of course, we make our own, but the idea is still Muggle."

"I was shocked the first time that I saw it. So what do you have to do to get this antidote into Harry?"

"We have to paint it all over his body to get it where it needs to be. The last scan that I did showed that the only cells that held onto the potion were the ones in the skin, where the potion just doesn't quite reach, so I made a spell flushing draught. When we kept forcing more draughts on him, it packed his skin with more bits of the potion." Spencer held up a large vial of the draught as well as two paint brushes. Two honest to God brushes. Hermione wondered where Spencer had got those as it wasn't something that she thought they had in St. Mungo's. Of course, one of Spencer's Elves could have got went out and got it. Or Spencer had a room in his Manor that was full of painting supplies. Other than reading Hermione had no clue what Spencer's hobbies were.

"All over?" Hermione frowned as she thought about seeing Harry naked after so long. When they had been on the run, Hermione hadn't cared about either one of the boys seeing her. Ron had issues with Harry seeing Hermione naked, but after years in Quidditch, Harry had no care on who saw him naked. So Harry had always kept his back turned when Hermione was changing.

"Yes. That's why the room is warded like it is. No one is going to enter. If you feel better about it, I can do it alone. I just figured that you would want to help in his care in some way besides wiping sweat from his face."

"Yes. I've seen him naked before, but I just...he was awake then and consented. I just...He needs this, and I need to remember that. I'm not taking advantage."

There was silence from Spencer, and Hermione looked up at him. He looked at her like he was trying to figure her out. Then a look of intense grief passed over his face. Spencer set down the vial and the brushes onto a table and walked around Spencer's bed to her side. Spencer hesitated before reaching up to cup the sides of her face.

"How long have you been in love with him?" Spencer asked.

"It doesn't matter. He's got a mate out there and he..." Hermione swallowed to hopefully stop the tears that are falling. "He's got two out there, and I can just be his best friend for the rest of his life."

"Oh, Hermione. I'm sorry, but you are never going to be just his best friend. I was trying to be kind until Harry was better and your shared mate was ready to come forward."

Hermione nodded but as she did Spencer's words washed over his brain again and again. Shared mate. SHARED mate. Hermione gasped and looked Spencer in the eyes.

"He's...we..." Hermione tried to back out of Spencer's hold, but he kept a hold of her. Hermione's knees started to give out. Spencer let go of her finally but not to fully let her go. Instead, he caught, and they crumbled to the floor gracefully. Spencer wrapped her in his arms. "Please tell me you are not joking."

"I would never hurt anyone like that. I would never give them the hope of not just a mate but two only to have it taken away. The exact wording from the seer was your third, and the Potter heir would claim the brightest witch of the age as their wife."

"Wife? They are both going to marry me?"

"Yes, it's generally what one does to their soulmate. You would be married to the both of them. You think you will be able to keep up with two Wizards?" Spencer tried to put some humour in his voice. Hermione laughed for a few seconds before she started to cry. She buried her face into Spencer's neck, and he just held her. "I don't know what to do with a crying woman...my sexuality didn't equip me for this nor did my friendship with Draco."

"Just hold me."

"That I can do."

Hermione let Spencer be the only thing holding her up as she purged all of her emotions. She had known that she had a mate out there but never guessed that she and Harry shared that mate. Hermione had forced herself not to see how much she loved Harry until then. Before it had been because there was no reason to get attached to the thought that Harry would make it through the war. Then after he was with Ginny and falling in love with her slowly. Now it was all a lie.

"How did you know that he was under a potion?"

"Have you seen pictures of Lily Potter?"

"A few here and there."

Spencer pulled Hermione's fae out of his neck and turned her to where she was sitting in his lap, and they were both facing the same direction. He held out his hand and in it appeared a scrapbook of sorts. Hermione frowned.

"I made this when I was young to learn the Lords and the ladies of the Ancient and Noble houses. While dead, Lily and James Potter were very important. My mother and Lily Potter were good friends. Not as close as Lily was to Neville's parents but close enough that Lily was around a lot and Bast got a lot of pictures of them. There was a page that was full of pictures of Lily and who Hermione assumed was Diana Reid. Hermione gasped.

"Ginny Weasley and Lily Potter look like they could be sisters. I heard one of the older students after you, Harry, and Weasley didn't show up for school your seventh year that it had to be in the Potter makeup for them to like redheads. There is liking redheads and loving a woman who can pass for your mother. I mean growing up without a mother can give a person mother issues, but that's...There is a lot more to do with it all, but I need to keep that quiet as it's a Lord's secret. Everything will come out I am sure over the next few weeks. I will keep the names of Harry's two mates silent, so it does not become gossip material. As far as I care no one needs to know that he has one much less two. Ginny Weasley is going to get into a lot of trouble for what she has done. While if Harry had been anyone else there would be some consequences, but he's not, and he's a Lord, and she tried to steal from him, in word and in deed."

"It's so...I can't see her doing it, but then I've never been that close to her. She was always obsessed with Harry, but so many students at the school were. I'm just glad that you were able to help him." Hermione rubbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. She hadn't changed after leaving the law firm, but she had grabbed clothes to change into and had. She was in some of her softest clothes that she owned. A handkerchief appeared in front of her. She laughed and used it to wipe at her eyes.

"It's self-cleaning and drying so feel free to blow your nose. After we apply this potion to his skin, we will need to leave him alone for a while. He'll wake up after a few hours. If you want, we can go and get something to eat, and you can come with me to check on my mother."

"Doesn't she live here?"

"Yes, there are long-term wards for people like her. She basically has a single room that she lives in. The bathroom is the only separate room, but she's allowed a bookshelf and books as much as she wants. I make sure that Bast keeps her in new books."

"This is all..." Hermione sighed but she pusher herself up to her feet before offering her hand to Spencer. He smiled at her and allowed her to help him up. "It's almost too much."

"Yes, I can understand that."

"How did you know that you had a soulmate? You commented the other day that made me think you knew you had before you went to the book."

"Magic promised me a mate after what I went through with my father. I didn't think that I wouldn't get my mate right then. I never even thought it. That hurt worse. That's why I didn't want to tell you until it was time. But things never work out do they?"

* * *

Harry felt warm, truly warm for the first time in a long time. He could hear little of thing other than the talking of two people in the room with him. He couldn't smell anything that was off, but it also didn't smell like his flat.

The voices were familiar, but one was more familiar than the other. It was a female voice that sounded like it should be really known to him, but there was something different about it. Harry didn't open his eyes, he didn't move at all.

"He didn't?!" the female exclaimed.

"Oh no he did. Draco grabbed that dress from Jibby and went into the room and changed into it. He even cast a quick charm to shave his legs. There is a spell for padding in the dress cup, and there is something strange about it to where if a person casts it on themselves it doesn't last long, so Draco did it for some of the girls in his class. So he did that. It was very...interesting to see Draco in a dress and made to look like a woman. I offered to do his makeup, but he said that he didn't want to look like a clown."

The female laughed, and Harry knew the voice then. It was Hermione.

"Clowns are scary."

"Yes, they are. Muggles have created a very scary thing when they made up clowns."

"You said that Harry would wake up soon."

"Yes, he will wake on his own. He's been sleeping a natural sleep the last few hours. I spelled some potions into him to help with calories and such. His magic was pushing out the potion just as much as the draught was so he expelled a lot of magic, more than he has been used to over the past few years. Don't worry about him, he will be fine. He will wake up when he's ready and not a moment before."

That voice was new, but Harry knew it. Spencer Reid. A tragic young man who was denied access to his soulmate for some reason or another. Harry wasn't sure on the exact reason why. Hermione liked him, and he liked Hermione for who she was. That made Harry like him more than anyone else in the world. With Spencer, Hermione could get herself. She could be a book nerd and not be made fun of. Spencer had read most of the same books that Hermione had growing up, even if he was as Pure-blood and she a Muggle-born. Harry could understand, Magicals didn't exactly make a lot of things like science-fiction or fantasy books, and it seemed that Spencer adored them.

"You awake, snake speaker?" a voice asked, and it was a new one.

"Sauron?" Spencer asked.

"Snake-speaker is awake. He thinks he hides it but he not."

"Spencer?" Hermione asked.

"I'm sorry, Hermione I forgot that I had Sauron on me. He is my bonded familiar. Here you go. He's a reticulated python, and he won't bite you as long as you don't hurt him."

"He's pretty." Hermione laughed a little and Harry heard her move. "I forgot that you were a parselmouth. You came after the Chamber and the mess with it."

"Sauron would have been helpful in that case. Would have understood what was causing the problems long before it became what it was. I heard that Harry didn't realise what he was hearing. I taught myself parselmagic and the language that goes with it. My family only had a book on it because my mother's family reads everything. He's probably going to play asleep until we force him to admit that he's awake."

Harry opened his eyes to see a snake draped over Hermione's shoulders with its head facing him.

"Can I visit him?" Sauron asked.

"Why are you asking me?" Spencer said with a smile on his face. Harry glanced at him and nodded, but he didn't invite the snake over.

"Can I slide on your body, Lord Potter?"

Spencer snorted and reached out to flick at the tail of the snake. Harry nodded again, and the snake started to coil off of Hermione's shoulders and onto the bed. Harry reached out and let Sauron smell his hand before it arched up to pet himself on it.

"He's spent too much time around my young cats Curiosity and Midnight who don't like the fact that Draco is moving out into his own home and therefore leaving so they are hiding from me right now. Sauron doesn't like it that much either, but he's being a better sport at it, but that's why he acts like a cat when he's getting petted."

"He is very beautiful, and I can tell that he knows it. I remember hearing about him at school. Ron was not happy that he was allowed into the school, but I can understand after reading about familiars why you were not allowed to be separated from him."

"I would have stayed home and taught myself everything if that had been the case. I don't take him into work much, but he's been acting weird for the past few days, so I brought him with me. I would love to figure out what is wrong with him. But enough about me, how do you feel?"

Harry scooted up on the bed and found that he didn't feel weak like he usually did when waking up in an infirmary and he had little hope that he wasn't in St. Mungo's. He pushed himself to sit up and found that the room didn't spin at all. Hell, he felt better than he had in a long time.

"I feel really good. I'm kind of shocked. I'm used to waking up feeling like shite when I am in an infirmary of some kind."

"I've kept a close eye to make sure that your muscles got a little work every few hours and that you got enough calories into you." Spencer stood up from his seat and sat down on the opposite side of the bed right at Harry's hip. "I can be gentle, or I can be blunt."

"Blunt."

"I've used a time turner to work on the potion, and I was able to get it all of the way out of your body. You will be fine and have no issues with it in the long term. You were dosed with it for years. A little bit in your third year keyed to an unknown blood and then your fourth year with another blood, not nearly as strong as the later one. In your fifth year, you were given a stronger version of it then nothing for most of your sixth year until late. That blood was used from then on. So about three years for the current blood. However, the method of being given it was always the same according to magic while you were in Hogwarts and that was pumpkin juice. Lately, it's been wine. The potion itself was clear, odourless, and tasteless. You never you were being given it. There was a brief period during what should have been your seventh year that you missed a few doses, but the thing is that those doses were from what I was able to figure out from the story from Hermione when Ron had been gone from your side and then after that."

"I didn't trust him that much then and didn't take food or drink from him at all."

"After the final battle, it was given to you again. I have tracked down the potion maker, and he's in Knockturn Alley and is being arrested at this moment. There are three women he has been making the potion for. One is an out of towner so France will be dealing with that while the other two are here in London. The second, I cannot talk about until proof has been made that she has actually given it to her husband and he was not aware. Making a potion to make yourself fall in love with someone is not an illegal offence, so we have to be sure. Ginevra Weasley has been the one picking up the potion for the last two years, but before that, it was her mother. SO they will both be arrested. You are going to be kept here in St. Mungo's but moved to a very secure but very posh ward until the seventh. Then you will be cleared to go back to training on the eighth. Your magical core took a hit because of this potion Harry, and we want to make sure that it's responding the way that we want before you start training again. Dobby and Rael are both sleeping at the moment but will be waking up soon, and they will be taking care of your food. You are not to take food from anyone but them. Libby will be making it and giving it to one of them unless you have a restaurant that is not in England you want them to pick it up from."

"No, no I trust your judgement on that, and I mean...you are the one that figured this out. How?"

"It's a Lord's secret, but I've been given permission to tell you that Molly Weasley, at the time Prewitt was caught with a love potion and a conception potion and her father made her marry Arthur Weasley as punishment. It was a magical marriage and love grew, but she wants more for her only daughter. The whole of the Weasley family is being suspected at this point and will go through Veritaserum interrogation. The older boy's and Arthur's jobs won't be harmed if they have no part of it. I was the only concession that I could get. The Aurors have already picked up Fred and George, and they are submitting to an interrogation without a solicitor present, so I made sure that mine was there for them. Even though it's kind of a conflict of interest, he will at least make sure that nothing they say that can incriminate them on another subject won't be gone after unless they harmed someone. Boyles will be fair to them. In this case, Boyles is going with the fact that he will be representing the House of Potter in this."

Harry leaned his head back on the bed and forgot that he had sat up but hadn't moved the head of the bed up. He almost fell back before he could push his body back up. Spencer leaned up and moved the head of the bed with the runes on the side of it. Harry leaned back on it and looked at him.

"I didn't even know that the Potter's had a solicitor that they used."

"The Boyles family has been in control of many Ancient and Noble families for many, many years. Hermione has told me that you don't care as much for the number of years as you do just knowing it was a long time. Newt is the current head, and he is grooming his daughter to take over for him when he wants to retire. Draco and I have used him for a lot of things, and Hermione is finding that her ostracisation there is getting less."

"Yes, well that I think has less to do with me and more to do with my friendship with you."

"That it might be, but you are showing them that you deserve a chance with your briefs. Newt had me read a few. You'll meet his daughter Xenia soon. She's over in the Americas representing a young man who got into a little too much trouble when out drinking while on holiday. Now back to what we are here for. When the Aurors raided the potion shop we found that the owner kept meticulous records and as well as brewing the love potion for her, Ginny bought several doses of potions to help her conceive. Now I already did scans, and I know that you have never had sex, but there is the threat of what would be considered line theft so that will be added. Miss Weasley will be facing these charges no matter if you press charges or not. You have plenty of things that you can charge her with as well, and Hermione will go over those when you feel up to it. It's going to take weeks to get all of the interviews and interrogations as well as the Wizengamot meetings. Those you will not be allowed in for, but you will be able to read everything when the case is final, and she is sentenced. You will be allowed to speak at her sentencing to ask for a lessened sentence or a stronger one."

Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose and realised that he had no glasses on but he was able to see. He vowed to ask about that later. He didn't know what he felt about Ginny and didn't want to make a rash decision, but she had at least been potioning him for two years. Her mother and it seemed Ron had been doing it before that.

"I will not speak out in help of her and I will not in relation to Ron or Mrs. Weasley."

"Ron will be charged?" Hermione asked, and she sounded upset about that.

"Probably. Harry was always small and thin. Mrs. Weasley might have convinced him it was health potions and that Harry would be too proud to take them on his own. We shall see. That's why all of them will be interviewed."

"This is a large cluster fuck," Harry said.

"Harry James," Hermione said.

Harry opened his eyes at looked at her, turning a little to face her. He stared like he was seeing her for the first time. There was something there that he had never noticed before. A pull that felt wrong and so right at the same time. He had never felt it before.

"You said that we each had a soulmate."

"I intonated that. The full truth has come out to Hermione, and I was going to tell you depending on how you felt when you came out of your sleep. You do have a soulmate, a male one and a female one. That's part of what tripped me up. Most love potions do not allow for any straying, but it seemed that no one realised that you were bisexual, so they put everything in the spell part into the opposite sex. They never allowed for wandering feelings. It's why you flirted with me but also stopped yourself and were very upset at me for what you thought was me pushing in on Hermione. You knew that there was something about Hermione and you hated her with anyone else. If you three had been allowed to come together naturally, and by that I mean allowed to see each other as equals when you got to Hogwarts, and the other things in your life hadn't made you enemies and everything else. You three probably would have bonded as a triad in your fifth year, sixth at the latest."

"Really?" Harry asked. He hadn't looked at anything on soulmates since Hermione had told him about it. He had seen her reading the books she bought on it after classes and her work at the firm and sometimes even reading while eating dinner. Harry wasn't sure what to think at the moment. It was hard to. He wasn't tired, but he kind of was.

"It's a lot of information, I know this, Harry but you were worried about your soulmate before you went under the last time."

"I was afraid that he would never accept me. I remember you asking about what I wanted. You know who our third is?"

"Yes, I do. He's worried about you, and I told him everything that you told me to. He wrote you a letter but the spell I put on your eyes will fail soon, and I don't want you to worry. So I'll tell you that he was very upset over what has happened to you and he wants you to know that no matter what happens with this if it puts you off of a relationship, he will be happy being friends. He just wants you happy and healthy. Whatever you need as far as a mind healer to help with this, he will make sure you get it. Even if it means that he has to go overseas and kidnap someone."

Harry laughed and settled a little further down on the bed.

"I don't want to visit him in Azkaban."

"That's good. I'll tell him that. I will say that he's getting a home ready for all of you. He hopes that one day the two of you live with him, even if it's as friends. There will be room for that. You will each have your own areas. There is a library that's bigger than Hogwarts I think and a place where he is already planning a Quidditch pitch. He's adding things for himself, don't worry about that but your mate, he's a romantic at heart even though he would probably force me to duel him if I said it in front of anyone else."

"You know a romantic would be good because I have no clue really what to do. My Uncle wasn't the most romantic at all."

"Let's say that whatever your uncle did, why don't you do the opposite. I've looked into Vernon and Petunia Dursley," Spencer said. He reached behind Harry's head and straighten a pillow that was there. Harry felt his eyes getting tired even though they were shut. "He was not a good man."

"No, he wasn't...he's dead?"

"No, he's alive, but I don't know how long he will be. He's been in and out of the hospital with severe heart problems, and his son is no better. They do not think that he will live until thirty with the way things are going with him. Your uncle has had two heart surgeries so far in the past two years. It's not going to go well, and then I think that your aunt is going to be all alone in the world."

"I shouldn't be happy about that, but they made me sleep in a cupboard until I got my Hogwarts letter."

"A cupboard?" Hermione and Spencer asked at the same time.

"The one under the stairs. My cousin would jump up and down over it to wake me up when he was feeling up to it."

"How about you sleep and we can talk about things like that over the next few days?" Hermione asked. Harry felt her settle on his bed and start to cover him up. Harry forced his eyes open to look at her. He reached up and brushed at her face.

"I remember in second year where I so worried about you. Then things got weird." Harry smiled at Hermione, and she smiled back. "We can fix this right?"

"We can fix this, Harry. I'll make sure that no one stops us."


	6. Chapter 5

# Chapter 5

_October 8, 2000_

Draco stood at the edge of the room and looked out into it. He wasn't sure what was going on that had most of the people talking in the room, but he knew that big stuff had happened overnight. Spencer had been pulled into something for the Wizengamot at two in the morning according to Tibby. Draco kept waiting for the call to pull him into it but nothing had happened yet.

The only thing that Draco knew from the short conversation that he and Spencer had was that the third lady who had bought the love potions from the brewer was not buying them and giving them to her husband with permission from him. It was going to be a cluster fuck, and Draco knew it. He just wanted to be there to watch as the Lords of the Wizengamot realised what their posturing on love potions has wrought. Draco had been taught by his mother that love potions were not the way to gain any form of a relationship. His father had been on the fence about them. Then the truth of Riddle's birth came out. How Merope Gaunt had potioned a Muggle into a relationship that had created Tom Riddle.

Love potions were horrible and disgusting to Draco, even before his soulmate had been drugged with one. Draco would never touch someone who had been potioned, even if they had taken it of their own accord. He would rather not be in a relationship than be a slave to a potion to love the person. Draco knew that some male Pure-bloods did it so that they could have a stable and loving relationship for their child and some did it because they were raised to believe that they needed to marry a woman and they were gay. That was a disgusting thought of a whole other realm.

Draco knew that Harry and Hermione knew that they were mates and that they had a third. Draco wasn't upset for Spencer's slip of the tongue as it meant that Harry wasn't pushing Hermione away, but Draco did agree with Spencer that at the moment since there was no prior true bond between Draco and Harry that staying away from telling him that he was the third was the best bet. Harry had too much dropped on him in the past few days. Harry had been talking to many inside the Ministry about what he remembered from around the time that he was first potioned right up until he was being potioned into loving Ginny.

Ron Weasley had been cleared of all charges because it was as Spencer thought, Ron had thought that he was helping Harry for being too proud. Ron had shared his memories of what happened during that time with great speed. Ron was also helping to search for his sister and his mother, both of who were in the wind. Someone in the ministry had alerted them both. Arthur Weasley was distraught that the women in his family had done what they had, but the proof against them made it hard to pass the behaviour off as anything else.

Harry and Hermione were sitting at a table by themselves in a corner area of the large room that was used to take breaks in. It was just a room full of a lot of tables and chairs. There was no sink, no fridge, nothing. The rest of the Aurors in training who were eating at the same time were spread out around Harry in a protective manner, and that made Draco feel better. However, the fact that no one had noticed him did not make him feel better. Draco gripped the Muggle lunch bag that Libby had packed for him to share with Harry and Hermione. Harry still wasn't eating as well as Dobby, Rael, and the Healers wanted, but Draco was hoping that this would do better. He remembered a little of what Harry liked from Hogwarts, the meals that he ate more than others. There was also a slice each of Treacle Tart. That he knew was Harry's favourite. Draco liked it, but it wasn't a favourite, but he would eat it as many times a week as Harry wanted.

Draco straightened up and took three steps into the room before someone noticed him. The whispers went up in the room, and Draco ignored them. Harry and Hermione had their backs to the room but given that Neville was one of the people closest to them and was able to watch the whole room. As Draco turned around tables and made his end destination known, Neville stood up. Draco stopped beside him.

"What do you want?" Neville asked.

"I just want to talk to Potter about the legalities that are coming his way. Spencer asked me to." Which wasn't exactly a lie, Spencer had been prodding him to talk to Harry about the team of solicitors that were working Harry's case as Draco knew them better than Hermione. Draco had just been fighting going to see them because he was afraid that once he did, he would never want to leave their side. Draco's magic was focused on the bond so much that Draco knew that he was nesting of sorts. He wanted them with him, even if it wasn't in the same bed.

"I'll be watching you," Neville said.

"I'm very well aware. I've wanted to talk to you, about our time in school. I am sorry for how I treated you and will make a formal, public apology if you would like."

Neville narrowed his eyes at Draco for a few seconds before he nodded and held out his hand. Draco clasped it, and they shook hands. That only made the whispers around them pick up and when Draco glanced at Harry and Hermione, they were not looking at him or even looking around to see what had the room in a tizzy.

"I think that they think it's all about them. The rumours of what happened to Harry have jumped up, and I think they are on post RIddle resurrection mode. Ignoring everything. Of course, once you sit down the whispers are not going to lessen at all. Look, he's..."

"I'm not going to entice him into a fight at all. I even brought lunch and Treacle Tart."

Neville's eyes shot up, and he looked at Draco like he was seeing him for the first time.

"Luna has been saying that you've been a lot different when you visit her shop. She thought that the scene with you and your new Elf was adorable." Neville turned to sit down, but he shifted a little to where he could watch the room and the table with his friends.

Draco nodded at him and turned to head toward where he had been aiming the whole time. Neither of his mates looked up at him as he walked behind them, so Draco stepped around the table to stand in front of them.

"Malfoy?" Harry asked as he leaned back and looked at Draco.

"May I join you for lunch?" Draco asked. He stayed still as Harry and Hermione both looked at him. He knew that he was the interloper. He was coming into a deep friendship that at least on Hermione's side had blossomed into love. Harry had been too potioned to long to develop any feelings for anyone except for the Weasley chit. That Harry had been able to form a good friendship with her was astounding and showed how much they had been friends before he started to be potioned.

"Why?" Hermione asked she was looking at Draco like she was trying to read his mind.

"I come on behalf of Spencer and the Boyles law firm."

Harry looked at Hermione, and they had a silent conversation that showed how deep that friendship was. Harry nodded and only then did Draco set down the bag of food. He pulled out the three containers of the casserole that Libby had made. He settled on in front of him and scooted the other two over towards Harry and Hermione.

"Libby made it, she was a little put out that both of you refused her food for lunch today." Draco sat down and pulled out the sets of silverware that Libby had packed as well before he grabbed the bottle of juice. Hermione drank down whatever she had in her cup, and so did Harry. Draco cracked open the bottle and gave them both some. Draco pulled a cup out of the bag for himself.

"She's been cooking for us for days," Harry said.

"Yes, and she loves to cook. She does nothing else in the house but take care of the kitchen and cook. She's only had the Elves and Spencer to cook for before I moved in with him. SHe adored adding me to the list and started to cycle in some of the things that I liked. She's liked adding your two favourite meals." Draco opened up the container with his food, and as soon as the smell started to waft out of it, Harry grabbed his and scooted it close so he could open it up. It was a simple Cottage Pie, but Draco found that he liked the simple foods after not having to eat with his parents. Spencer was simple in the food that he ate. As long as it was filling and it was warm, he didn't care.

Hermione opened hers much more sedately. She picked up her as yet unused fork and took off a small bite of the pie. She smiled and pushed back the cold sandwich that had been her choice for lunch for the day. Draco knew it was from the shop down the block as Draco went there on occasion. It would be good for dinner that night if Libby didn't get her way a second time.

"Libby is a very good cook," Harry said.

"Spencer had her sent to learn from many chefs around the world. She will take little sabbaticals if she hears of someone else who she wants to learn from. I think that Spencer lost about a half a stone the last time she was gone for over two weeks. The other Elves do okay when she's away, but she bullies Spencer into eating, and some of the others don't watch him close enough. It's interesting to see him being run roughshod over by a tiny Elf. Rael was good at it, but I think that had more to do with her love of arguing with Spencer and he with her more than anything else."

"I noticed that when we were visiting Lady Diana," Hermione said.

"Oh, yes. I'm sure that you did. Spencer told me that Rael was in fine form that day." Draco had received a floo call about it. Spencer ha gripped with a smile on his face for ten minutes about Rael and Bast making him look like an unintelligent cad in front of Hermione and his mother. It was good for Spencer not to be someone that Hermione would put on a pedestal.

"He was most put out."

Harry was picking at his food and Hermione pushed the container closer to him. He took up a bite and ate it, but Draco could see that he was still a great deal off. He hoped that Harry would be able to eat dessert. Draco kept that quiet as he started to tuck into his food.

"How are you feeling, Potter?" Draco asked, making sure to use his last name. Anything else would have shown more than Draco wanted. He could feel his magic swirling in a way that Draco had felt a lot of times as a child and teenager, but he never understood it. He assumed it was his hatred of the pair in front of him.

Harry didn't drop his fork, but he did stare at Draco, just like Hermione had, looking like he was trying to read Draco's mind.

"I'm still a lot off. hermione has me an appointment with a mind healer tonight after I am done with training."

"How is training going?"

"The book stuff is hard, but at least it keeps my attention. The practical stuff is easy, but then I've never had an issue with that." Harry shrugged like it was nothing.

"That's good. My own training is going well. I'm a little afraid because the Goblins like me so much. I feel like one or two of them want to adopt me." Draco was trying for sounding less like he had in school and more like himself, the side of himself that only Spencer had ever seen before.

"That is kind of scary."

"Are we really going to sit here and do small talk?" Hermione asked as she stabbed her fork into the middle of the pie and left it standing up there. She was looking at Draco like she had in school when she never knew if he was going to attack her or not.

"Isn't that a sign of growing up? Making small talk no matter who the other person is?" Draco asked.

Harry laughed, covering his mouth when Hermione glared at him.

"I figured that it would be better to make small talk while Potter eats and then talk about what I came here for after he's done so that I don't put him off of his food. The look of disappointment when I go back and have to tell Libby that he didn't eat it all would upset me."

"Doesn't seem like Spencer is the only one who is Elf whipped," Harry said before popping a large bite into his mouth. He chewed slow but no less enthusiastically as he did in school when it was food he liked.

"No. I'm sure that you did a few things like it for Dobby."

"You would be right," Harry said with a smile on his face.

"How is Dobby?"

"He's good. Happy that he can do something for me finally. He and Rael are making short work of getting my flat up to the standards that they want. I'm not sure that my flat will ever be up to the standards that they want. I didn't have an issue with my flat, but it seems that everyone else does. Spencer thinks that it's a downside to the potion I was under that I didn't care where I lived because nothing was making me happy anyway."

"I can see that. I really can. If your life is not what you want, why be happy anywhere."

Harry was looking at Draco with a contemplative look on his face, but he didn't say anything about how Draco's life could be horrible. Harry had seen what the Malfoy Manor had been like with Riddle and the Death Eaters there. Harry tucked into his food quickly, and Draco was shocked at how quick he could put away the food without looking like a pig at a trough. Draco ate his much slower and Hermione ate at the same pace as him. Harry finished his food before Draco was through half of his.

"So what does the law firm want you to tell me that Hermione can't?" Harry asked, and he seemed to be more sure of himself at that moment. It took Draco's breath away. This was the man who as a teen had got under Draco's skin and Draco had never been able to figure out why.

"Hermione has never faced a trial of any kind, and I know that you had a mockery of one with your use of magic but this is very different. You won't be on trial but will have to watch someone that while they potioned you, you had forced feelings for. You are used to people watching you, but this will be different." Draco took a deep breath because he did want to make sure that Harry had everything that needed, it was what Magic asked of him, no matter the status of their bond.

* * *

Hermione watched as Harry stared at Malfoy as Malfoy picked at his food after saying what he did. She couldn't figure out what Malfoy's angle was. He wasn't acting anything like he ever had in school and just like that day in the alley, Hermione was feeling out of sorts being close to him. SHe didn't understand the feeling if it was her magic telling her to stay far away or get closer.

Draco Malfoy had aged into a handsomeness that the sneer on his face as a teen had hidden from anyone seeing. THere were no wrinkles on his face that told her that he smiled a lot. Harry had less of them as the years had gone on and Hermione blamed herself for never noticing that he was under a potion but with how long he had been under it, she could understand why. Molly Weasley had been good at what she did. It wasn't that hard to understand though because, by the time that Ginny had gone to school, she had no one to care for at home during the school year, so she had a lot of time on her hands. With her and her daughter in the wind, the Ministry had opened up one of their special apparition points to Harry so that he could arrive and leave without using any of the public areas. Harry had done it when he arrived that morning and had sent Dobby to Hermione so that she knew that he had arrived at training just fine.

"It is a lot different, Harry," Hermione offered as she looked at Malfoy. He was at ease, and Harry's tone wasn't upsetting him. She wondered if he took a calming draught before sitting down at their table. Hermione turned to look at Neville who had not sat with them, instead giving Hermione and Harry some privacy as they ate. Neville was watching the room more than their table, but he had moved to where he could watch the table.

"I know that it is and I know that the firm is worried about me trusting them, which I appreciate but why would they send you?"

"Spencer cares nothing for trials and only sits on them in the Wizengamot when he is called upon for his ability to read quickly and remember it all. That's what he's doing now. The other woman who bought the potions it seems was not doing it with her husband knowing which I figured anyway but there was the hope. She was a Half-blood, but I am not supposed to know that as Spencer was tired when he told me. She is going to face a lot of derision. Ginevra will face a lot as well, but the Pure-blood aspect will work in her favour. You being the Boy-Who-Lived and the Saviour will help you and given that it was such a good potion will make it hard for her to escape for what she did, she's still Pure-blood. Your opinion will matter a great deal in what happens to her. If you turn you back on her, she will face a lot of problems. If you are of sound mind and support her, they might go easy on her."

"I don't want them to go easy on her. Hermione and I have been discussing what I want to say out and about with the press. The trial won't happen until they find her according to Hermione. That's not going to be good in her favour because while I used to not understand how to handle the press, one of the smaller classes we are given as part of Auror training is how to talk to the press. Hermione also found me a book wrote by one of your Great-Uncles, I think Draco. How to make the press think you like them but you hate them was the subtitle of it I think. I read that while I was confined to my room. I was allowed to get up and take a few walks a day but that was it."

Hermione knew that Harry was worried about what the Prophet was going to say about him. Hermione was worried as well, but Newt had assured her that they were going to keep a tight rein on them this time around now that they weren't under an injunction that stopped them from taking care of it all when Harry had been in school. Those files had been sent over, and Hermione had forwarded them on the Head Auror to make sure that something was done about it and something happened because of it. Harry didn't care about money, but a printed apology would be nice.

"Newt also asked me to ask you if there was any property that she could be hiding at that you have access to. Dobby allowed Aurors into your flat after he made sure that it was clean enough. She hadn't been around there for a while."

"No, when she's in town, we go out and eat and dance, and she had been trying to get me to move into a much better flat that she could live in as well. She tried to talk me into a ring on her finger and that once that ring was on there, no one would care that we were living together. I asked her once about going to the book. She convinced me that we knew that we were soulmates and that we didn't need a book telling us. She used her time that she waited while I was on the run and in hiding as proof that she loved me more than anyone else in the world. I was stupid, but at least I wasn't that stupid. I wasn't moving in with her until we were married, which after I told her that, every weekend she asked about the ring I had picked out and that she expected a yule engagement as my present to her."

"Merlin," Malfoy said. He shook his head and picked up his drink to drain it. He frowned at it like he wanted it to be something else. "I can be a drama queen, but I would never demand a ring from someone."

"She didn't like the answer that I wasn't going to offer her a ring until my training was done and I was settled into my life as an Auror. That's still two or three years away. She's just getting a job as a player on a Quidditch team; she didn't need the burden of engagement either. In my head, it would better that way. I see now that it was just a way to get access to my money. That's the only thing that she wanted besides what being my girlfriend got her in the way of publicity. I wasn't a person to her, but a means to an end, and yes the mind healer I have been talking to is the one that helped me see that."

"It's a problem with money and fame that go hand in hand. I think that it's part of why arranged marriages are so popular. You don't have to worry about what they are after when someone has as much money at least as you and a set procedure that will happen if a divorce happens. Mother and Father's marriage was arranged, but it was after they knew each other. Father's former arrangement partner had died in a tragic accident with a few others when the spells on a building broke down, and they were crushed when father was fourteen. By then Father and Mother had known each other since they started at Hogwarts. When Grandfather asked about her hand, Mother was happy with it. What is it called...a perfect storm? Those two families marrying given how strong both of them were supporters of Riddle." Malfoy looked upset, and he covered his arm where most Death Eaters were marked.

"I've only heard the rumours about how you weren't marked." Harry ventured, and Hermione was glad that he asked instead of her because she wanted to know.

"It's a spell and a series of potions that allow a magical core to be broken enough to accept the enslavement to that monster. Spencer helped me by brewing a potion that acts like an allergy to the core ingredient that allows the magical core to be broken like that. It's taken a week before the ceremony. I was forced to take it. As soon as it touched my tongue, it swelled, and I was unable to take more it. Nothing that Snape did to me or the potion allowed me to take it. I slipped away and never let myself be caught like that again. It saved my life, and it allowed my father to have a reason to have not done as Riddle wanted. Another Death Eater to be had the actual allergy in the last war and had died because Riddle had been unwilling to let a Healer see him. My mother was there, and it was impossible for her to let me die. I stayed with Spencer as much as possible from then on and never went back to the Manor even when father demanded it."

"That was smart thinking on his part," Hermione offered.

"Yes. It was. Thankfully, Riddle was beyond the baser things like rape. He liked torture, and I think that he got off on that instead. Spencer told me about Muggles like him."

"He didn't even have a cock," Harry said.

"What?" Hermione and Malfoy asked at the same time.

"I saw him when he was reborn. I saw his body, and what it did and didn't have. LIke you know a nose and a cock. I mean I am all for animagus forms and shit but turning myself into a creature that didn't have a cock. Or if he did, it was like a snake's, and well that's not going anywhere without a lot of pain on a human's part. Though if he got off on torture, I could see him doing that."

"You are right," Hermione said as she looked at her food and realised that it was gone. She was glad that they had not got to that topic while Harry had still been eating. "I am glad we did small talk first."

Malfoy lifted the bottle of juice and poured what was left out between the three of them.

"There was Nagini," Harry offered as Malfoy was taking a drink of his juice. Malfoy made a weird face and the raised up the napkin that had been in his lap and dotted at his mouth before swallowing.

"You did that on purpose!" Malfoy near yelled. It drew eyes to them but Malfoy was laughing, and Harry started after a few seconds. Hermione didn't understand what they were talking about. She looked between the two of them, and they were laughing so hard that she wasn't sure that they were breathing at all.

"What about Nagini?"

"Nagini was a snake, if Riddle had snake parts..." Harry grinned as he said it and like a lightbulb in Hermione's head she got it. Hermione grabbed her napkin and wadded it up before tossing it at Harry.

"HARRY JAMES!" Hermione's voice was shrill as her mind supplied that image that she was never going to be able to get rid of. Harry caught the napkin and flung it on the table between them. He looked entirely too amused with himself, so Hermione reached over slapped his arm. Harry caught her hand as it tried to leave and laid it on his arm. Hermione squeezed it and left it to lay there.

"I don't think that I have laughed so hard in a long time. Thank you for that. I will have to make sure that Spencer has that image in his head as soon as possible. He will, of course, ask what we talked about, so it will be easy." Malfoy looked almost delighted by that, but given Spencer's knowledge base he had probably shared many things like it with Malfoy that Malfoy would rather never know.

Hermione realised that Malfoy was looking everywhere but at where her hand was on Harry. She wondered about that.

"Have you ever gone to the Book?"

"The Book? What book?" Malfoy's tone was like ice. There was something more there, and Hermione almost backed off. Almost told him to not worry about it.

"There is only a single book that I know of that is powerful enough to be called THE Book. All capitals and all of that shite," Harry said.

"I was told when I was young, three if you want to know that I had no soulmates."

"How did they know that?" Harry asked. He leaned forward and looked very upset at that. "I thought that...oh, one of your family seers discussed it as some point didn't they."

"That is what my father told when I was three and then again every year on my birthday all the way until I was seventeen. It was drilled into my head over and over again."

"Oh, Draco." Hermione stood up from her seat and came around. She saw that he looked shocked when she pulled him into a hug. He was stiff throughout it all, but when Hermione didn't pull back after the standard time, he wrapped his arm around her and patted at her back awkwardly. Hermione laughed a little and pulled back. She reached out and cupped the side of Draco's face and kissed his opposite cheek. Draco blushed a little at that attention, but there was something in his eye when Hermione pulled all the way back. She wasn't sure what that look was. She wanted to ask what it was but there was a hardness to that look, and while Malfoy was submitting to the closeness, Hermione realised that she had never done anything like that and really the last time that she had ever touched him, she had punched him.

Hermione stood up and moved back to sit down beside Harry who wasn't looking as murderous as Hermione thought that he would.

* * *

Harry watched as Hermione forced Malfoy into a hug. The hug looked like it hurt Malfoy to give back with that weird pat on her back but it wasn't painful like Malfoy was touching something that was disgusting but more that he was denying himself something more. Malfoy started to blush when Hermione kissed his cheek.

Hermione stood up and fled from Malfoy like she had burned herself and settled in at Harry's side.

Harry wasn't the best at knowing when someone was lying but there was something in Malfoy's statement that was a lie. There was such pain in his eyes that Harry was pretty well certain that Lucius Malfoy had done what Malfoy said that he did. He could see the elder Malfoy being that cruel as to remind Draco every single year about what he did not have. There was something like hope on the edge of that pain in Malfoy's eyes though. Like he had found out that it was false but the pain of the years was still there.

"I would assume that you ask because you know that you are mates?" Malfoy asked, looking at where Hermione had put her hand on Harry's arm again.

"Yes. We have not gone to the book, but we have found through a very trustworthy source that we are mates as well as we have a third."

"Oh, that's...there hasn't been a fated triad in a long time in England," Malfoy said.

"Yes, I found that out in my research. I've been researching everything I can find on soulmates in Wizarding literature. The notion of it has lasted in the Muggle world even though magic has been hidden from them. There is no way to figure out if one is a soulmate or not, but it's there."

"It's probably from Squibs who had gone into the Muggle world instead of living in a world that scorns them for their families failing," Malfoy said.

"Failing?" Harry asked. He had heard Hermione's thoughts on Squibs and how they were created.

"Some of the Noble and Ancient families breed themselves into extinction. While many of the older people in my family never figured it out it wasn't that hard to see that it was the families that preferred inbreeding that produced the most Squibs. There are a few families that it's not the case, but in those cases, I found that the mothers went through something traumatic when they were pregnant. I found that in many of the Squibs that were born just after the war ended. Longbottom had no chance of being a Squib even though he was close to it until his wand was snapped on accident after the war. The new wand that he has is quite powerful. I've seen him cast with it as Luna's shop. I've already apologised to him for everything that I did to him while we were in school."

Malfoy reached into the bag one more time and pulled out another container as well as three plates and three more clean forks. As soon as he opened the lid, Harry could smell the Treacle Tart and his mouth started to water. Malfoy passed the first piece to Harry with a smile. Harry nodded his head in thanks. The next piece was handed over to Hermione. Malfoy kept the last piece for himself, digging into it with a smile.

Harry watched Malfoy eat. It was very different than how Harry ate or even Hermione, and it was loads different from the way that Ron used to eat and probably still did. Harry hadn't been around him so long that even the thought of watching him eat made Harry a little sick to his stomach. Harry pushed those thoughts away and thought about Malfoy.

When it was late at night, and Harry was having trouble sleeping, he thought about things that could have gone differently when he was younger. What touchstone events could have been turned to make his life very different. Not believing Ron and his way of thinking right off the bat would have been a big one. Malfoy had been a brat that day, but given what he had seen between the two families, either of them had been the best. It wasn't until Harry's third year that he realised how deep friendship went and how much it could blind someone to what was happening around them. Had he learned from the tale of Peter Pettigrew? No, he hadn't. It wasn't until Ron had left them in the forest that he had even realised how fickle Ron really was. Then he had accepted him back with open arms.

If left to their own devices, Spencer was pretty sure that Harry and Hermione would have been bonded before that point and the third part of their triad would be there as well. That was the most interesting part, what would have gone differently with someone besides Ron with them as they fought Riddle? It would have saved many lives probably. Hell, a lot of lives could probably have been saved if Harry had just shaken Malfoy's and. Peter Pettigrew proved that all witches and wizards that went bad did not all come from Slytherin. Harry had allowed his prejudices to be shaped by the first two magical people that he interacted with for more than a few minutes. Malfoy had been his snotty self when he was in the robe shop, but Harry knew that he acted differently in public than he did in private even back then. He had learned to not act that way as time went on because someone was going to find fault in whatever he did.

"The Sorting Hat offered me a choice," Harry said, musing. His two table mates looked at him. Hermione looked a little shocked while Malfoy just looked inquisitive. "Said I would do well in the other but I wanted to be with Ron and Hermione. Hermione was already in Gryffindor, and it was very evident looking out into the Gryffindor table that Ron was going to sort there as well. So I asked to be put there. I have to wonder how things would have gone if I was sorted into the other house."

"You do well in learning but you are not a Ravenclaw, and I can't see you in Hufflepuff." Malfoy propped his head on his chin and smiled at Harry as if he got the message that Harry was saying.

"You are correct that it was Slytherin. I mean I did well in Gryffindor, but I have to wonder if I was in Slytherin and forced people to see them for who they are right then than how the people who had gone before were. Over half of them had nothing to do with the Final Battle on either side much like the rest of the school did. But if I had been there to stop the ones that did go over, over. I could have done a lot of good there. I could maybe have stopped Spencer from being picked on my Gryffindors instead of watching it happen and given a token protest. We were children, and we were stupid, and it's so evident now but back then was a different story."

"It would have been interesting to have you in SLytherin. I can see where Weasley's prejudice against us had turned you off of them."

"Hagrid didn't help. He told me that every single witch and wizard to go bad came from Slytherin. I found out later that it wasn't true. There were several Ravenclaw and a few from Hufflepuff that were found out to be Death Eaters. Then there is the big one, and that is Peter Pettigrew my parents best friend who turned against them and allowed them to be slaughter by his git of a Master. Maybe if I had allowed myself to feel ambition I would have actually done something to help those around me instead of just focusing on taking out Riddle."

"Ambition is not bad as long as one allows oneself to rein it in. Ambition for ambition's sake is the failing of my father. I want to do damned good in life, but that's to show the world that you can be make a living as someone who serves the light and not be a big ponce."

Harry grinned and dug down into his tart. He really liked this and knew that having access to it was going to be bad. Of course, he was still taking in a lot of calories to help fuel his activity as an Auror. His Healer would love to see him put on some more muscle and some more weight in general. Harry still wasn't the greatest at eating large meals. It was hard to eat a lot to him, and he knew that a lot of it was mental.

Draco reached out and pushed half of his tart toward Harry with a grin. "I can't eat another bite of it, but you seem to be enjoying yours. You can have mine."

Harry nodded and pulled the plate close with his fork. Harry finished off his before staking Draco's on top of the empty plate.

"You look less like a third world refugee now," Draco said.

"I eat better now and dress a lot better."

"You mean that you are allowed to eat more."

Hermione gasped and looked at Draco with shock on her face, but Harry only glanced between them before looking at Draco.

"Wisdom comes with age, and unfortunately, that means that I missed a lot of shite when I was younger. I heard you asking to stay the summer after the first year. That you would give anything to stay. I didn't understand it then, but after having Riddle invade the Manor, I understood then. I would have done anything not to go home the summer after Riddle came back to life in a body. Things were horrible enough before with Father trying to make a ghost happy but that summer and then the one after. It was hell on Earth, and I loved my parents. You've never spoken about where you lived but I heard Weasley talking about the bars on your window but passed it off as him telling a story for fame when we were younger, but recently I've started to think about everything. We thought we knew everything when we were younger, and then we were forced to see that we were children who were playing at doing the right thing and playing at being something that we were not, which was adults. I lay blame on that because the adults around us seemed not to care what we were doing or care about protecting us."

"My letter from Hogwarts, the first one and the ones that came after that while we were still home were addressed to Harry Potter, Cupboard Under the Stairs, Number Four Privet Drive. You can't tell me that no one knew. Even if the process was automated, the place changed as my uncle tried to get us away from it. Someone sent Hagrid to where he found me. No one looked at the places that I had been before? Dumbledore turned me into an instrument of war that had nothing to lose and everything to gain by making sure that I tried to die to save the world. Heroes always fall when the war is over, and everything is laid to bare, but no one cares until it's over." Harry knew that his outlook on it wasn't the greatest but there was so much that could have gone better if he had been prepared for what was to come instead of left to be blind and deaf to it all.

"We were children but I still feel the need to apologize for everything that I did during our years at Hogwarts together. I was a child who had been raised at the hand of a cruel and an callus man but instead of making sure that I was nothing like him even though I hated what he was, I tried to become someone that he could or even would love. When that failed, I still acted out because, in my mind, you had a loving home. I read those books about you as a child and I thought that it was truthful, even though I had seen what you wore and how you looked. I also apologize for how I acted about Buckbeak, that what the of the Hippogriff, right?"

"Yes."

"My father was livid with what happened after that, but I think that it had more to do with Sirius Black escaping more than anything else."

"I have him in a sanctuary after Sirius died. He didn't take Sirius not being around well at all," Harry admitted.

"That's good. Anyway, I mean it. I'm sorry." Draco was just looking at Harry as he said it.

"I am sorry for everything that I did as well. I would like to start fresh with everything with you." Harry held out his hand, and Draco reached out to shake it. When Draco leaned back after letting go of Harry's hand, Harry felt bereft somehow. He didn't like it. He wanted to reach out again and retake hold of his hand.

Draco looked at Hermione next. He smiled at her and held out his hand. When she reached out, Draco turned his hand to take hold of her's and raise it up to his mouth to kiss her knuckles.

"You are the brightest witch of our age, and you are going to make the world take notice and look at you. I listened to my father's words, and I took them to heart, even after he started to be proven wrong, time and time again. You outperformed Pure-bloods and Half-bloods time and again. Harry is a Half-blood who does better at most spells for defence and offence than anyone else that I know, and really that is saying something. I learned because of you that being scared isn't a bad thing because look what the three of you did every single time you got scared shitless. You showed me that being a Muggle-born wasn't a badge of shame but a badge of honour because coming into a world that you never knew existed and trying to find your way in it is braver than anything I have ever done in my life. You, Hermione Jane Granger, are the Heroine of the Boy-Who-Lived's story and never let anyone else tell you different."

Hermione looked speechless, which was a feat that Harry hadn't seen that often. Harry was speechless as well. He almost wanted to ask Draco for proof that he wasn't one of the twins using Polyjuice, but he didn't want to break the spell that was over them at that moment.

"I had to learn how to look at the world again because of you. I had to see the world through the eyes of everyone else around me and see what I needed to do to become the man that I needed to be. I hope that I never disappoint you or Harry ever again."

Harry shifted in his seat because there was something very raw and honest about the way that he said that and Harry wasn't sure what Draco meant by that. Draco kind of looked shocked that he said it. He grabbed his cup of juice and drained it before standing up. He bowed a little and left without anything that he had brought with him. His face was red like he was blushing and maybe even ashamed of what he said.

"Are we sure he wasn't polyjuice?" Hermione asked under her breath beside Harry.

"I was thinking the same thing but the only people I could think that would do that are the twins and well...that Muggle lunch bag has Spencer's name on it so I doubt that they broke into his Manor, given the rumors about what the outside of the Manor looks like and stole a lock of Draco's hair as well a Muggle lunch bag of food that had my favorite dessert in it. I seriously doubt that either one of them did all of that."

"Then he was being truthful?"

"We know that he changed some when he started to spend more time with Spencer and was different even after the end of the war. Maybe we are finally seeing Draco Malfoy instead of Draco, Son of Lucius Malfoy." Harry looked where Draco had disappeared through kind of hoped that he came back. He really wanted to talk to him more, person to person instead of enemy to enemy like they had through school. Spencer portrayed a side of Draco that Harry had never seen before, except there in front of him just a minutes before. It was someone that Harry could see himself being friends with. Someone that he wanted to know.

Harry cast a few spells to make sure that no one could read his lips or hear what he said to Hermione unless they got right up to them.

"He was acting weird through the whole soulmate bit, Mi," Harry said.

"He wasn't lying."

"No, but I think that maybe his father was lying to him. I think he knows that he has a soulmate out there and I think he knows who it is. He was refusing to look at your hand where you were touching me. I know that we have a third out there. Spencer told you that he found that through reading through some journals seized in the war. Do you think that Draco let anyone but him read those journals?"

"Harry, are you saying what I think you are saying?"

"Let's not discuss that here. You go to work, and I'll go to training and we can talk about it tonight at the flat. I don't want to do anything unless we are sure." Harry looked around because too many were interested in watching them. Harry was used to it but if Draco was their third. They needed to go to the book sooner rather than later and Harry would rather go as a triad then alone.


	7. Chapter 6

# Chapter 6

_October 9, 2000_

Draco settled into the couch in the living room of Spencer's Manor. It was just after midnight, and that meant it was the weekend for real and Draco was looking forward to that. That meant that Spencer was going to be home at some point soon and be able to spend time with him. They had a lot to discuss. Draco felt like he had lived a year in the past week. The Wizengamot package on the trial for one Haley Brooks was massive, and Draco knew that it was mainly compiled by Spencer which would mean that he would want the break as well. The Wizengamot package on Ginevra Weasley was less but no less damning to her.

Lord Aaron Hotchner was holed up in his Manor and Draco was pretty sure that he wasn't going to come out for a while. Ginevra Weasley's potioning of Harry had been horrific and what she planned to do just as bad. After searching the Weasley house, Aurors had found a journal that dated back to just before she had started at Hogwarts. Molly Weasley had spoon fed her daughter stories of Harry throughout the year where she was not in Hogwarts, but Ron was. That had been horrific as after that Ginny has her mind set on marrying him. Harry though by his own admission when he had been interviewed had never looked at her as more than a sister. He had never really looked at her during the summer between second and third year when he stayed with the Weasley's. The change had been slow and perfect because no one looked at Harry and Ginny as a couple as anything weird up until Spencer started to really look at them.

Draco closed his eyes and tossed the two briefs onto the coffee table before he settled back onto the couch and looked at the fire. Draco wanted the book thrown at both of them, but he wanted the book thrown at Haley Brooks more and that upset Draco. Ginevra had potioned Draco's soulmate and robbed him of the chance to have maybe done something a great deal different if they had been allowed to come together on their own. Now Draco had a soulmate that was messed up in the head and hesitant with everyone.

Yet, Brooks had fucked with a man for many, many years and it was only when no maternal bond settled with the child that she and her then-husband had created that anyone looked at them. Jack Hotchner had nothing of her in him. There was no magic from her and Draco was pretty sure that if DNA tests were done there would be none of that as well. The divorce had been pushed through before the court case had been enacted and Hotchner had pushed her out of his house in all ways that were possible. Two women, one Pure-blood and one Half-blood, were on trial for the same thing, and Draco was going to make sure that no matter what they both faced the consequences of what they did.

"Master Draco," Tibby said as he stepped up to stand at Draco's legs between the coffee table and the couch. He looked very, very upset and that was strange because Tibby was usually very calm."

"Yes, Tibby?"

"I am worried about Master Spence."

"He's just working a lot on some Wizengamot things. He'll rest this weekend, I'll make sure of it, and it'll start when he gets home."

"That's the problem, I don't think that he be coming home until the Wizengamot things are over with. The trial for that lady is Monday right?"

"Yes, Ginny Weasley will be on trial on Monday."

"No, the other one. The Mean One."

Draco looked at Tibby. The Elf was very upset, and Draco didn't know how to calm him down, but he had no clue why he was worried about the Brooks trial more than the Weasley one. They were both happening Monday, but Draco figured that both would last at least two days each, so he had no clue which one was going to happen first. That meant that Tibby thought that Spencer was going to stay at the Ministry until Thursday.

"I'm sure that once the Weasley trial is over with, Spencer will come home."

Tibby shook his head, and he reached up to grab his ear. Draco reached out just as Tibby dug his nails into his ear and made it start to bleed.

"Why are you hurting yourself?"

"Master Spencer make me promise never to tell, but Master Spence also tell me that if something is hurting him, I am allowed to tell secrets to you."

"What secret are you holding in your head that you think is hurting Spencer?"

"Who his soulmate be."

Draco looked at the Elf, and he felt like he had been punched in the gut. Spencer's magic had been acting up, and the only reason that it would be doing that was something massive. Spencer's floo call on the seventh in the evening had said that his magic was calming down finally and Sauron was done being a bitchy familiar. Tibby was more worried about the Brooks trial. The only reason that the little Hotchner boy had been born without his mother's magic was because he had been conceived in a ritual when all other methods of becoming pregnant had failed. When she was given an exam, there was no reason why she should not have been able to conceive. Hotchner had been subjected to the same thing, and neither had issues. Spencer had offered the thought that since the child had not been wholly the woman's, then Hotchner had to have a soulmate out there. Hotchner said that he had never gone to the book because she was in a relationship with Brooks from before he turned seventeen until that point.

Spencer knew that Hotchner had a soulmate. The only way that Spencer knew that was if it was in a journal from the war but he had not said that. He had offered the suggestion that maybe Hotchner had a soulmate.

"Lord Hotchner is Spencer's soulmate?" Draco asked.

"YES!" Tibby nearly made himself fall with the strength of his word. Draco reached out to catch the Elf.

"Gods. Hotchner is fucked up too. The Mind Healer stated that he had been on too many versions of a love potion for too long before the newest one and that he was going to be a long time in getting his head on straight."

"Yes."

"Just make sure that Spencer doesn't work himself into the ground. Force him to sleep. I can't do anything that won't piss him off. You guys can get away with mothering him in a way that I can't. Just...make sure that he remembers that I will be here for him."

"Youse dealing with your mates. You know he won't invade on that."

"I think maybe my mates and I will have to invade his life when this is all said and done." Draco reached out and rubbed his thumb on Tibby's cheek. "Don't worry about me. I have my Elves, and they can take care of me. You deal with him. Set up around the clock care on him. Make sure that he eats. You know what to do, it's war schedule again."

"Good thing Tibby keep that schedule huh?" Tibby grinned, and he looked a lot more settled. Draco reached up and murmured a healing spell on Tibby's ear. "Thank you."

"You are welcome. Go find someone else to relieve you and you get some sleep. I'll be up most of the night now worrying about Spencer and my own mates. I'll ask Libby for some of that nice herbal tea that Spencer likes."

"Okay, Master Draco. You be good and sleep too."

"I will when my mind lets me."

Tibby popped out of the room, and Draco sighed before rubbing his face. Spencer had thought that his soulmate was happy in the relationship with his wife. He thought that Hotchner had made that choice on his own to be in that relationship.

Draco summed pen and paper and settled in to write a letter to the healer that had helped the both of them post-war. He had decided to say nothing because he didn't want to make his soulmate hate him by seeming like he was trying to force Hotchner into a relationship with someone that he didn't love. The bad blood between Sean Hotchner and Spencer didn't help matters at all. Aaron Hotchner probably had some form of disdain for Spencer on that fact alone. Add in Spencer killing his father in the protection of his mother, and the fact that Spencer had been a Slytherin and the relationship was doomed before it even started.

"Magic provides my ass," Draco said. It was the tenant that Draco had been raised on. That magic provided everything that a wizard or a witch needed. At the moment Draco kind of figured that magic didn't provide so much as it fucked up lives.

Draco was torn between keeping up with what he had started the day before, by visiting Hermione and Harry when they had been at lunch together. He could back off, and nothing would seem out of place. He had never associated with them, and the visit could be precisely what it was. Draco didn't have to do more. He had his castle, and nothing said that he had lived in it until things were more settled between him and his mates. He could stay with Spencer and Spencer wouldn't care. Spencer was probably going to need him. Draco could be selfish and not care about Spencer, but it wasn't in him to do it. He loved Spencer like a brother, or what he assumed he would feel for a brother. Neither of them had a sibling, so he wasn't sure. Harry and Hermione had no siblings either. Nor did Luna or Neville. The only person that Draco was at least familiar enough was Weasley, and he was never going to ask him because the dynamics between that family was all over the map. Some of the friends that Draco had made at school had siblings, but Draco had seen them with them, and it was only the two Greengrass girls that were remotely friendly to each other.

The flare of the boundary wards told Draco that someone was approaching the property. Spencer had added Draco to the wards years before to where Draco didn't feel weird knowing when someone was close. Draco pushed himself up and moved to the front door. There was a spell there that worked like a Muggle security camera and allowed him and Draco, and even the Elves to see who was coming down the primary entryway to the property. Draco touched it pushing his magic into it, and he saw Harry Potter and Hermione Granger walking with purpose to the front gates.

Paddy popped into existence beside Draco.

"What shall I tell them?"

"Tell them that the Lord of the Manor isn't home and bitch that it's after midnight."

Draco pushed more magic into the spell, and he could hear the crunch of gravel as Harry and Hermione's feet walked. Paddy appeared on the inside of the gate and Draco could see that he was glaring at them.

"What be your business here?" Paddy asked.

"We are here to visit," Hermione said.

"Visitors come when it's light out, and the food is on offer. Wizards with bad thoughts in their head come in the middle of the damned night and expect to be allowed in with no prior engagement. Unless you are on the run for your life? You don't look you on the run for your life. Are you?"

"Um...No," Harry said, looking at Hermione with a very perplexed look on his face. She looked equally as confused.

"Lord Reid not be home. If you wish to see him, make an appointment, and I am sure that he be glad to allow you inside. He might even break out the fine china, even if you are here now in the middle of the night."

"I wasn't aware that House Elves could be mean," Harry said.

"Master Reid not make us any different than how we are. We allowed to be assholes to those who are uninvited and to those that show up outside of normal visiting hours. Be gone, and I won't pop you into a lake." Paddy turned around and started to talk back towards the Manor some.

"We are not here to see Spencer. We are here for Draco," Hermione's voice was calm as she said it.

"It's night, normal people are asleep at night. Come back tomorrow." Paddy waved his hand and Draco was pretty sure that when he pulled it down only his middle finger was there.

"We demand to see him!" Harry called out.

"You can make all the demands that you want but you not get in unless I allow it," Paddy said as he turned around.

"We demand to know if he is our soulmate!" Harry yelled. Thankfully there were wards that were out past the actual boundary lines for the property that stopped anyone from hearing what was said at the gate. Draco wanted to slap himself in the head. He had tried to hard, but he had to have messed up somewhere during the day if they were confronting him. He should have guessed that they would confront him, they were Gryffindors through and through.

Draco apparated to just behind where Paddy was. "Thank you, Paddy. You are free to go now. I'll take care of them."

"Master Draco needs sleep!" Paddy cried out.

"Who is the Wizard and who is the Elf?" Draco asked.

"You be my Wizard as much as Master Spence is my Wizard, so you will do what I tell you if you wants a happy household!" Paddy near yelled, but he popped away.

Draco looked up at the pair at the gate.

"Sometimes I think that Spencer practically being raised by his Elves is the worst thing in the world, and then I see how they care for him and how they care for me, and I don't think so. Still, they think they are the boss. You two can come through."

"Spencer's wards are strong," Hermione said.

"Yes, well as soon as Spencer harvested your magical signatures they were added to his ward scheme so that you two could come and go as you please."

Draco watched as Harry held his hand out and pushed at Hermione's arm to stop her from walking forward. Hermione huffed but stayed still. Harry stepped forward, and Draco could feel the wards part and allow him in with no issue. Only once he was on the other side did Hermione start forward. Draco expected her to stop when she got even with Harry but she didn't and the look on her face Draco had seen before. Right before she punched him. Draco flinched back, taking a few steps and raising his hands to protect his face. He kept his eyes closed, waiting to feel anything. He braced for the pain, and when nothing happened after what felt like several minutes, he lowered his hands just enough to look at Hermione. She was looking at him a little ashamed. Draco lowered his hands all the way, but he didn't step closer to her.

"I guess I deserved that. I'm sorry that I punched you."

"You were wearing the same look and well..." Draco shrugged and looked at Harry who looked like he wanted to do something but he wasn't sure what and wasn't sure what would be right to do. "Please, come in. Spencer is at the ministry getting ready for the Wizengamot trials. He's not going to be home according to Tibby for days."

"Why?" Harry and Hermione asked at the same time.

Draco looked at them both and cocked his head to the side to give himself a few seconds.

"He has kept the name of his soulmate a secret stating that he didn't want to disrupt a life they were happy with. Even though he and the man are perfect for each other, Magic herself says so. Tonight his personal Elf came to me worried because he is afraid that he is going to run himself into the ground because of the trials. Miss Brooks wrote down everything in journals, he's reading them all to have the DMLE ready for the trial. I think part of it is that he wants no one else to know what his mate went through."

"Lord Hotchner is his soulmate?" Hermione asked.

"It would appear so. Or at least it's the name that he gave his Elf, but I don't see him lying about it and why he's working so hard on this when technically he shouldn't be. He figured out the potion and the cure or antidote for it. He should be done but the journals." Draco inhaled and looked at Harry. "If you had been under Weasley's pull for that long and she had detailed every single aspect of what she did to you in a journal, I would read it and let no one else know anything that they didn't want to know."

"Me, too," Hermione said.

"Let's not stand outside. I'm sure that we can scrounge up some tea and a snack. Libby is probably asleep, but I asked for a pot of herbal tea before you two arrived. We can head into the kitchen."

"You know the outside of his Manor looks horrific up until you pass through the gates."

"It's kept young Witches and Wizards away from gawking or just trying to pull pranks and shite. Spencer spent a long time on what the Manor looks like outside of the wards." Draco waved them forward and tried not to frown when Harry wrapped Hermione's arm around his as they started forward. Draco turned on his heel and started forward. They were not added to the wards to where they could apparate. Draco looked at the walk they had and sighed. He didn't want to go that far that late at night. "Do you mind if I do side-along with you? I really don't want to walk that far."

"Sure," Harry said, and it sounded like he was very sure of his answer.

Draco started to turn, but instead, he felt Hermione wrap herself around him from one side and Harry the other. Draco felt his magic shiver at that. He closed his eyes because being as close as he was with being as tired as he was, he felt his cock start to fill a little. He would have to wank before he slept and he blamed it on the two that were wrapped around him.

"That felt good," Hermione said.

"It's our magic trying to blend to get to know each other. It'll get stronger the longer we spend with each other."

"It felt right when Harry said it and I couldn't disagree. We talked it over and didn't really register what time it was before he headed to where magic was pulling us to."

"I wondered how you had found Spencer's Manor. I can see that."

"Do you have the journal here?" Hermione asked, and it took a few seconds of Draco thinking before he figured out that she was talking about his father's journal. Draco nodded. "Can I see it?"

"Sure. We can head to the library where Spencer has them instead of the kitchen."

* * *

Hermione watched Draco as he showed Harry around Spencer's manor. It was huge, but it seemed right for Spencer. Hermione liked Spencer's manor and hoped to live in something like it one day. Three of them living in a house seemed to be wrong. Personality wise, none of them was even close, but she could see where they would work together. If Harry was right and the Draco that had been in the public eye for the past two years was the real Draco, he was the most passionate of them. Hermione was passionate about righting wrongs, but she knew that she stuck to books and facts over feelings. Harry was still finding himself and being potioned for years didn't help that at all.

Harry was going to take time to become who he was meant to be. Hermione wanted to see him happy, but that would take time, a lot of time, and she was going to be there for him. Hermione looked around the room that they had settled in, which was the kitchen. Their tea was long gone, and Draco was making them a new pot of it. He was a gracious host and answered all of Hermione's questions without dodging unless it was something that Draco was unsure if Spencer wanted anyone else to know.

"So when can we go to the book?" Harry asked as he settled down on a stool that was on the other side of where Draco was in the middle of the kitchen. There was an island that made up the centre of the room that was strangely U-shaped. It fit for the kitchen and Hermione could see the Elves all working on things all around the whole of the work area. It was a nice little place. It was the kind of kitchen for a family and not a bachelor. Spencer though had a family in his Elves, the only people in his life to not let him down in some way shape or form, other than Draco.

"It's available twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. The Record Keeper, the Wizard who watches over the book is completely magical. Or he is now. He was a Wizard once, but after accepting his destiny as the one to watch over the Book, Magic changed him. Not much is known except for the fact that he could stay away for days, sleep an hour, and be fine for days more. There is no mass rush though so he cat naps from what I am to understand."

"How do you know that?" Hermione asked as she took a seat that was between where Harry and where Draco was. She kind of figured that she was the balance between the two. Most would think that it would be Harry since he was, from a blood standpoint, between them but he was more volatile than Hermione and Draco was as well. There would be bumps, Hermione knew that. Draco had been raised very differently than Harry or Hermione. Yet there were aspects of Hermione's life that were radically different than Draco or Harry. Harry never knew love. He had no knowledge base for what it felt like, what it looked like, or even what it acted like. The last time that he had felt love was the night that his parents died. Draco had a mother that loved him to the ends of the earth and a father that was abusive. Hermione had two loving parents who sacrificed everything to give what she wanted. They agreed to go into hiding to make sure that there was no one to use against her when she had gone off with Harry to track down the Horcruxes. Hermione had lied to everyone but Harry about that. She had not memory charmed them without their permission.

"Spencer went back last year on his birthday to talk to the Record Keeper. Spent a great deal of the day with him if I remember correctly. He will probably go again this year."

"When? I would adore going with him." Hermione never thought about that. Going and just talking to the man. The Record Keeper was probably lonely.

"Um." Draco looked away from Hermione as he settled her new cup in front of her before handing Harry his. Draco slipped around the island to settle on the inside of it. "Any time today."

"Today is Spencer's birthday?" Harry asked.

"He doesn't like to talk about it. He would rather just celebrate on Halloween and have a large party on that day. Given-" Draco trailed off and looked at Harry. "I am sure that he will very much understand you not coming to the party, Harry. It's just us and the Elves so it's not like you would be expected to be happy for the whole night if you did decide to come. It's a good excuse to get rip-roaring drunk as well. At Hogwarts, we would hole up in his room, and we should spend all night just talking. Birthdays were hard for him. His father didn't care to celebrate it, and his mother after so long under his father's thumb had memory issues. She would forget if it were night or day much less remember her son's birthday. The year before he went to Hogwarts she had the Elves celebrate it seven times because she thought that it was that day seven times."

"You know that I don't think that Lord Reid ever should have had a kid much less a wife. He sounds like he had no clue what he wanted out of life," Harry said after he set his mug down from the first drink. "Spencer said that he was afraid of being able to control him and when he figured out that he couldn't he started to control his mother instead because Spencer loved her and would do anything to make sure that she wasn't hurt. It's that kind of shit that makes me want to do sweeping reforms that no matter what every single burst of accidental magic for all teens and kids under the age of seventeen are investigated. I mean when a one-year-old is throwing a tantrum because they don't get ice cream and want it, that's different, but after a certain age, every single instance of accidental magic that I had was caused because of a reason. If someone had investigated what happened with me, I might have been pulled from the Dursley's before it became what it was. Spencer's home life would have been figured out. He went to the Aurors, he went to everyone that we are told to go to when we are in trouble and because he was a Pure-blood he was seen by those who were Half-blood or Muggle-born as a snot then after he was sorted Slytherin it was because he was a dark git. If anyone had actually looked at his claims and went to his house, I am sure that it would have been noticeable."

"My father used words and actions but never violence with me. It's just as painful and horrible." Draco started to run his finger over the rim of his mug, just circles and circles while looking down at it. "We can do a lot more for children. I know that really we aren't much more than young adults but what does it say about our world that what happened was allowed to happen to us because of what society thinks everyone is and not see them for who they are. We looked to those above us as children and look what it got us?"

"We have to make the changes with our generation. Do it with our kids and not allow anyone else to tell us that we are wrong," Hermione said, and both of the men nodded their head.

"I don't want to derail the talk, but I want to see the book, I need to see the book. I know that you showed us the journal Draco, and I trust it, but I...I've been led about by my nose for too long. I trust in what I feel there, but there is a part of my head that won't let it go until I see it."

"We can go now. Less chance of anyone seeing us. Really there isn't going to be anyone else there." Draco looked kind of nervous either about it or something else, Hermione wasn't sure.

Hermione nodded and frowned at Draco for a few seconds before she stood up. She stepped around the island and leaned into him, half hugging him. Draco let out a surprised laughed but wrapped his arm around her shoulder to hold her there.

"I think that both of you are touch starved."

"What's touch starved?" Draco asked.

Hermione looked up at him. Draco looked thoroughly confused. Hermione looked at Harry who was looking at Draco confused.

"It's when someone has never really been touched in a way that is good or touched at all really. The only time I was ever touched was when I was being dragged around by my aunt or uncle. Even after I came to Hogwarts, no one really touched me at all. The only person that touches me is Ginny, and now I can't quit thinking about that."

Hermione looked up at Draco, seeing that he had his thinking face on. She wasn't shocked when he disengaged from her and started to walk towards the opening of the island. After a few steps, he pulled her along after him. Hermione followed along with him. He dropped her hand when he stepped around Harry. Harry turned on the stool that he was sitting on to look at the both of them.

"Can I touch you?" Draco asked.

Harry looked at Draco with a confused look on his face.

"Why are you asking?"

"Because it's proper to ask when one is not married." Draco was acting like it was the most normal thing in the world where it really wasn't, not to Hermione and probably not to Harry. Hermione knew that no one in his Harry's life had probably ever asked to touch him. It broke Hermione's heart a little because she hadn't let herself see it. He was as Draco called him Perfect Potter. He wasn't a hero if he was being abused, not in Hermione's eyes. She had no way of knowing what kind of life harry would have had if Dumbledore had found out. Dumbledore could have left him there with his abusive relatives and then things would have been worse. Look what he made sure happened to Spencer.

"I guess it's okay."

Draco looked at Hermione with a look of consternation on his face. Hermione smiled at him and then poked Harry in the ribs. He wiggled away from that poke and glared at Hermione.

"What was that for?"

"Because you are a prat. If you don't want to be touched, say so. We are not trying to force you into anything Harry James. I think that Draco is doing it because he's never really thought of himself as touch starved. He wants to see if I am right."

"Then why isn't he touching you?" Harry almost looked like a little kid as he crossed his arms over his chest and pouted a little. Draco sighed and stepped back, raising his hands. Harry's face fell as Draco did. "Don't."

"Don't what? Don't go? Don't touch you? What, Potter, what don't you want me to do?" Draco asked.

Hermione heard the Potter in there, and she knew that Draco was getting defensive. Harry reached out, and instead of grabbing Draco's hand he grabbed the front of Draco's shirt and hauled him in. Draco lost his footing a little and ended up almost on top of Harry. Harry looked a little shocked, but he didn't let go of Draco's hand. Draco braced his hands on the counter on either side of Harry's body. Draco leaned in, and it looked like he was going to kiss Harry, but instead, he dived to the side and just brushed his cheek against Harry's.

"I am never going to touch you if it's going to freak you out, Harry. Soulmates are precious, and I would rather cut off my own arm than to ever harm you. When you are ready, then I'll touch. This is not a race, and there is no winner," Draco whispered just loud enough for Hermione to hear it as well. "I will not turn away from you if you take months or even years to want my lips on yours. My body on yours. We are mates in soul, and all that really means is that we are going to be the best of friends, but even that needs a foundation."

"I'm scared." It sounded like it took everything in Harry to say that, to admit it.

"I know you are, Hermione and I are as well, but we are all scared of different things. Me and you, we've never had unconditional love, and it scares us. Hermione is afraid of losing what little she had built for herself if this doesn't work out but I have a secret."

"What?" Harry and Hermione asked at the same time.

"As long as we don't fight this. As long as we are honest, we can be everything that each other needs." Draco leaned up and touched Harry only enough to disengage harry's hand from his shirt. "Let's go. We can side along to the Alley's point and go from there. Glamours won't work inside the arch of the hall of the Book, but we can wear them up to there."

"I'm ready," Harry said.

"So am I."

Hermione didn't like to side along apparate, but she knew that with Spencer's wards it was needed. They landed in the Alley, and she looked around. There were people around, a few of the shops were twenty-four-hour ones. No one paid them any attention even though Hermione was sure that someone at some point would recognise them and the three of them anywhere together would make the cover of the paper.

"Who is going to open the book?" Hermione asked.

"You can," Harry said with a shrug.

 

Harry wanted this, Hermione knew but wondered if he was truly ready for it mentally. He was strong, but at the moment he was a little weak.

"What about Draco? He was the one denied the right by his father."

"Oh, yeah. That's fine." Harry's voice cracked a little, and Hermione knew that he was hanging on by a thread. She pointed to where she knew the entrance was, and they all three turned toward it.

Hermione was lost in her head a little when she saw a man exiting the ďoors that led out of the Hall of the Book. He looked utterly devastated and kind of familiar. Hermione turned to Draco, and she knew by the look of sorrow on his face that he knew who it was. She waited until the man had passed them before she stopped walking. Harry and Draco did as well.

"Who was that and what's wrong with him?"

"That was Lord Aaron Hotchner."

"Is he upset that Spencer is his soulmate?"

"No. He's upset that Spencer denied him the right to know who he was two years ago. Soulmates can do that. He's not ready. He needs to get his head on straight. Harry doesn't have years and years of memories of being wholly in love with a woman. Years and years of what amounts to rape at the hands of the woman that he loved. He has a son that needs him and a life that he needs to figure out before he's going to be ready to bring Spencer into his life. It's going to hurt him for a little while, but the good news is that when Hotchner has a clear head, he will know that it's not the truth of the relationship that caused Spencer to hide it. It was well documented where Spencer has been since this all came out. Hotchner will figure out that Spencer did it when Spencer thought that he was in love with the Brooks woman. Is it really the best thing for him? Only time will tell."

Hermione looked back at where she could still see Hotchner walking in the Alley. There was too much heartbreak caused by it all. Too much of everything because two women wanted something that was not theirs to have and though that they deserved it. Only the trials would tell them the truth behind it all. Only time would tell if the both of them would ever be able to fully recover. There was little else to do at the moment.

Harry stepped forward and opened the doors to the Hall. He ushered Hermione in and then looked at Draco next. Draco nodded and stepped inside.

If the Record Keeper looked shocked to see them, he hid it well. Hermione let Draco and Harry bracket her on each side as they stepped under the arch.

"Welcome, Lords, Lady," the Record Keeper said.

"I am not Lady."

"In the eyes of Magic, you have been since you were born. Lady Potter-Malfoy. Though a woman such as you might choose to keep her maiden name for your job. I can see that, and I can see your husbands allowing it. However, it doesn't change what is."

Draco looked at the Record Keeper before he stepped up to stand in front of the book. He reached out, and his hand hovered over the book. Hermione stepped up behind him and laid her hand on her shoulder. Harry moved up to his other side and touched his arm. Draco opened the cover of the book, and the pages flipped to the middle. There is no preamble. No flowery words. Just a simple sentence that rushed through Hermione's boy.

_Draco Lucian Malfoy is promised to Harry James Potter and Hermione Jane Granger._

It stood to reason that Draco opening the book was why his name was first.

"I'm glad to finally see you all here. I expected Miss Hermione first and then Draco of course. I hoped that Lord Potter would show up as well."

"Spencer said his name was in the middle of the book," Draco said, and Hermione wasn't sure what he meant by that.

"Yours is next to his," The Record Keeper said.

"Spencer might not be in today. Just to warn you."

"I can feel the upset in the world. Many bad things."

Draco nodded, and Hermione squeezed his shoulder as she thought about it.They were going to need to get going to make sure that no one did see them.

* * *

Harry felt weird as they landed inside of the wards on Spencer's property. He expected to see the Manor in front of them, but instead, they were in the middle of nowhere with a tree in front of them.

"This is Erebor. There are three other trees that mark the edge of the grounds. Five more feet on the other side and we are out of Spencer's lands. The other three tree are Bree, Angmar, and Minas Tirith." Draco touched the tree that besides him and the glow of magic was easy to see.

"He likes series does he?" Harry asked.

"Yes. He does. His love of Muggle fiction is large, and I think it was so named because of Sauron. Tibby tells me the names came from the book and the direction that they are concerning the map. Erebor is the main one that you two need to know."

"WHy?" Hermione asked.

"Because twelve feet away from it is a tree growing that will do the same thing for our property. We have the same amount of lands with a larger castle than the Manor. My Goblin, Spitehex, told me that the lands had belonged to twins at one point, so they are mirror images of each other. I found it nice. Later another bought our lands and built the castle. It's a nice castle and very warm. Xibby and Jibby, my two Elves have been getting it ready to live in. The wards are all set, and things can be added or taken away as you wish but I figured that we are not going to get any sleep tonight so I might as well show you where for now I am going to live and I hope that you two will live with me one day."

Harry waited for Draco to start walking before he followed the young man. Hermione tucked herself into Harry's side, wrapping her arms around one of his and holding onto it tight. Harry felt the push on his magic as they crossed the wards and they were right in the middle of the awards. His skin felt like it was on fire, magic dancing over his nerves. It was interesting as he had never been between such strong wards before.

"I feel like I stuck my finger into a light socket," Hermione whispered into Harry's ear. Harry nodded his agreement.

Draco held out his hands to them, his back to the wards on his property. Harry reached out at the same time that Hermione did, and they were both pulled across the bounds much like with Spencer's property the wards let them pass with no issue.

"The ward stone can be changed as soon as you both come inside and we can make sure that you can apparate across the lands as needed. Spencer will probably do the same once he's home."

"Are you sure that you don't want to go to him?" Hermione asked.

"He hides himself away in knowledge when he can't deal. If I try and force him to do anything he will go away for longer. He'll come to me when he wants, let me hold him and cry himself to sleep on my shoulder. It's what I did the day that he went to the book."

Draco pulled them both to him before Harry felt the pull that said they were apparating again. Harry opened his eyes when they landed and looked at the castle. The stone of it was darker than most, almost black. It tried to blend into the black sky around it. He loved it already. They had landed just far enough back to where Harry and Hermione could just see all of the castle in its whole glory.

"The Elves have already started to discuss what they want to do. Feel free to call Rael and Dobby so that they know where they can find you today."

Harry whispered Dobby's name knowing that it would be all that the excitable little Elf would need to arrive. Dobby appeared with a pop that was a lot louder than it needed to be followed by Rael popping in silently. Harry had not got to talk to the Elf of Hermione's that much.

"Why you here, Master Harry?" Draco asked.

"Because I asked him to be, Dobby," Draco said. His voice shook a little, and Dobby turned around to look at Draco. Dobby frowned and looked at the castle behind him.

"That's not Malfoy Manor."

"No, this is my new place of living, and I hope that one day Harry and Hermione will live here with me."

Dobby glared at Draco and stared like he was trying to figure him out. Dobby looked at Harry before looking back at Draco. Draco smiled as Dobby before he crouched down and held out a hand. Dobby stepped up to take that hand.

"Youse never should have sent Dobby away," Dobby said.

"I know, but I had to protect you. Father was getting worse, and I knew that Harry would protect you, even if he wouldn't know exactly what to do with you. I see that you are looking very good. He takes good care of you."

"He no let Dobby cleans house. He keeps me busy with other families that need help while Dobby finds them help. I miss him."

"Well, Dobby, he's been sick for a while as you know and that was part of it. He didn't trust Weasley with you and really neither would I."

"Why you have them live with you?" Dobby asked turning again to look at Harry before he looked at Hermione as well. "Castle big but why stuff it with Miss Hermione and Master Harry?"

"Well Dobby, I think that it's what soulmates do, but I'm not sure," Harry said with a smile on his face. He stepped up behind Dobby and laid a hand on Dobby's shoulder before looking at Draco. "And I don't know. Even from the outside, I think that maybe this place would be lovely to live in instead of that old flat I've been in. Even if Rael cleaned it to look better than it was when I moved in. What do you think?"

"You live here, I come back to help you. You no living here alone. Where are we?" Dobby looked at Draco.

"East of Reid Manor. The wards on the castle and it's land make it Unplottable, there is every form of Muggle repellant that can be bought on it as well as apparition and port key blocks. If someone who is not tied to the wards tries to get access, they are dumped into a cell in Gringotts and left there until the Goblins remember to check the cell."

"Good. Master Harry need protections after what mean Weasel did to him. You protect him?" Dobby asked.

"Of course."

Dobby threw himself at Draco, hugging him before he stepped back and turned into Harry's legs. Harry gripped the back of Dobby's head.

"Xibby, Jibby, make sure that Dobby and Rael find the Elf quarters and you all four get some sleep. Tomorrow morning you four and work on getting the rooms set up for them. None of us is getting sleep tonight, so just the front room with the long couches will be used."

"Yes, Sir," one of the two Elves that Harry hadn't even noticed were there said. He looked at them and could see a resemblance to the Elves that he had met of Spencer's. Harry knew that Spencer's Elves were helping with what they could. Draco had made sure that they both understood that really Spencer had too many Elves even as it was for a house that had just him and Draco in it so they spent time doing extra things and so helping with other things was nice.

"Where is the Elf Quarters?" Hermione asked as she started to walk towards the castle. Draco fell into step behind her and Harry followed behind him.

"Well, Xibby and Jibby didn't like the ones that were already in the castle which amounted to a dungeon so the turret in the centre of the castle? That's above the master bedroom fo the main wing. There are four other wings, but one was turned into a ballroom and other things for parties. So I took over that wing to allow you two to fight over the other two wings which are next to each other. Xibby had the Goblins help her set up the spire of the turret into nice quarters for them. Eight Elves can live in there with plenty of room, more if we get any bonded pairs of any of ours bond. Jibby also made sure that there was room for a nursery and two kids rooms. Those are in between the main wing and their rooms, proper protection for the young Elves when they are had. Someone would have to go through all of the other Elves or through our rooms to get to them."

"Eights a lot but this place is huge."

"And Qan has already taken over our gardens and declared them his. Spencer just laughed at him, but Qan does wonderful on Spencer's garden. Libby has the kitchen well in hand. The other eight can focus on anything and every they thing else that they want. We will have to pick who we want to run the household, but that can come at any point."

"Won't Xibby or Jibby do it?" Harry asked.

"No. They don't want the responsibility. Rael won't want it either, so it'll be either Dobby, or we will have to find someone else."

Harry thought about Dobby having something to manage that wasn't Harry's everyday life and wondered if the Elf would like that. "I'll ask him."

"Good. So how do you feel about a tour?"

"Later?" Harry asked. He sighed and closed his eyes. "I'm too tired to run around. You said that the front room is or will be made up to sleep in tonight? Can we just lounge around?"

"Sure." Draco waved them forward and then followed them into the castle.

Harry marvelled at the tapestries that were all over the walls in the foyer. It was a beautiful castle, and even the entryway made Harry feel at home. He felt more at home in this stupid castle than he had anywhere else in the world.

"I don't want to sound like I am jumping the gun, but I do like this place. When can I move into my wing?" Harry knew that he was being slightly insane, but the protection that the castle could give was greater than the flat he had been living in. He had not wanted to buy a house or even a larger flat to live in because it would have meant that Ginny would want to move in but now he was free of her forever. Or he would be soon. As soon as the trials were done, Ginny would be gone in one-way shape or form.

"You can move in later today, I'm sure that the Elves will be glad to get your room ready for you as soon as possible. The other rooms and Teddy's room will be a little longer."

"Teddy?"

"He's your Godson, and I would never deny you your right to visit him. I would love him to visit you here, even if you want to keep him away from me at first. He's young and won't understand some things. Mother visits him at her sister's on occasion, and I have seen him twice now when Aunt Andromeda has brought him to mother's. He's darling and is good at changing his hair green. He likes to get it to match the drapes that I have in my room in mother's flat."

"Slytherin green?" Harry asked with a smile on his lips. Draco just grinned at him.

"Yes actually. I do like the colour green, but red has grown on me." Draco waved his hand at a doorway. Harry slipped his arm around Hermione's and escorted her into the room. It was decorated in light purples. Harry liked it because it made him feel calm. "I decorated this like a room that I stayed in with Spencer after the War. We went away to a weird as hell bed and breakfast that had something to do with cats in the States. One of the guests had written something about sat and forever am at work here. It looked a little weird like someone had changed what had been written there."

"That makes no sense."

"Yes, I told Spencer it looked like someone had written something about satanic forces, but he wouldn't believe me." Draco walked over toward the fireplace and sat down on the edge of it. Harry watched as Draco started to set logs into the fire before grabbing what looked like a Muggle lighter. There was a pile of paper and what looked like leaves in a basket. Draco grabbed a few of them and piled them at the base of the pile of logs that he made.

Hermione walked over to a large armchair and settled into it, tucking her feet up. The room had a chill, much like everything else in October in England. Harry walked over and found a blanket that he draped over her. Hermione smiled up at him. The fire started to crackle a little as the older logs on the bottom middle caught fire. With the help of the charms in the stones themselves, the fire caught a lot quicker than it would have. Harry was kind of shocked to see Draco starting the fire without magic at all.

It was one of the small changes that Draco had done to himself after the war and during it even. Draco had worked with Neville to protect who they could protect during their seventh year at Hogwarts.

"You told Spencer, Harry, to share many things with me that he never should have. I know what your status is as far as sex goes but I don't care about it. I am not a virgin, and I never planned to stay that way past my sexual awakening. While Riddle was beyond acts like that, I never trusted my father's friends. They were more depraved than he ever was. I fumbled my way through a night with a lovely Ravenclaw girl. If either of you wants to rid yourself of your virginity if you have it." Draco looked up at Hermione when he said that before looking back at the flames that were jumping. "If you want it gone before we get serious, I don't care. I don't expect monogamy at all until we are all agreed and exclusive. I want your happiness more than I want anything else in the world."

"You accepted us, word and deed, as soon as you saw the names. Even before seeing the book. Why?" Hermione asked.

"My family and my family magic are based on purity, and that purity will conquer. My father and his father took that to mean blood purity. The whole family has, but they took it a step further and joined a blood purist who was anything but a Pure-blood. From here on out, I choose that ti's purity of heart and purity of magic. Any children that I have will learn that. I won't forget the past that my family has done, but this is the change generation. This is the future that I want for my children. They won't care about blood purity or worry about who they love. As long as the person they love is a good person I won't care either."

"The Potter motto is follow your heart. I found that out after the war. I found out a lot of things that were kept hidden from me while I was in Hogwarts. I agree that we have to be the change generation. The Wizarding world needs a wakeup call." Harry reached down and ran his hand through Hermione's hair before he settled down on the small couch that was facing Draco. Draco turned and settled with his back leaning on the stone wall that outlined the fireplace. He looked good there, and Harry liked looking. Harry knew that he was not ready for anything remotely intimate, but he liked looking at Draco. He liked looking at Hermione, too. It was different to want Hermione as something more than a friend. Hermione had been there through everything with Harry. She was the rock that Harry formed his life on, and now she was truly going to fully be that rock.

"There is a lot to change and a lot of it has to start with the laws."

"There are a lot of them that I would love to see gone," Draco said as he stretched his legs out on the hearth. "As society Muggle England lags behind every other country in the world. I would love to see our country getting into the times."

"It'll have to be kicking and screaming, but I think it can be done." Hermione smiled.


	8. Chapter 7

# Chapter 7

_October 11, 2000_

Draco looked at his peers as he made his way through the Wizengamot chambers and into the main room. It was full up, and except for the Potter and Hotchner seats, Draco was sure that everyone else there would be there. There had not been a trial like this since Dumbledore's posthumous trial where he was convicted. Draco was getting a lot of strange looks from people that never paid him much mind before. He knew that it was mostly to do with being worried about what he was going to vote. With Potter and Hotchner Houses abstaining and the Malfoy dislike of Potter well known, Draco was sure that many were going to think he would vote to not convict Weasley based on that alone.

"Draco," Theo said as he stepped up to Draco and wrapped an arm around his. Their boxes were close to each other, so it made sense to walk up together. "Have you looked at the specifications of the making of the potion. The DMLE is not pulling our chain right?"

"No, Spencer is the one that broke it down. He is the one that figured out the whole cure and got Potter free of it."

"Potter is in Auror training, I can see someone missing it on him, but Hotchner has been in the Auror program and before that other big deal shite, and he was missed? Hell, he's been the leader of the Shadow Team, and none of them caught this crap?"

"You know that he'd been potioned since he was in Hogwarts. He went into the jobs potioned. The fact that no one has ever caught the potion use is more telling of other issues."

"Spencer is friends with Potter. How is Potter doing?"

"Spencer hasn't said. You know he is bound by oath to keep the secrets of patients just like Healers. He might not be one, but he was brought in on Potter's treatment as well Hotchner's."

"What made the Auror's decide to show the new trainees what reactions like that look like?"

"I know that a few months back there was a big hullabaloo because an Auror didn't know what an allergy to a potion looked like. I figure that it's all stemmed from that." Draco disengaged from Theo's arm as they arrived at his box. Theo said nothing but he nodded before heading towards his box. Draco settled into his box and activated the wards that would only allow family inside of it.

Draco had no clue what Harry or Hermine's plans were. They had all discussed everything to death over the weekend, but Harry still wasn't sure if he was to be there to see it all. To see the lie that had been his life plastered around for everyone to see. Draco hoped that there were some things that could be kept quiet. Harry already had too much of his life in the realm of public knowledge. It was stupid that the world thought that they were privy to everything in his life because he had been the one to take down Riddle. Draco was going to make it his job to make sure that it did stay that way. Their relationship was not going to be that fodder.

A note flashed into existence and landed softly in front of Draco. He looked around to see that it happened inside of every single box, if there was someone inside or not.

_Lord Malfoy,_

_The trials of Haley Brooks and Ginevra Weasley will be taking place at the same time, as both of them have the same solicitor. Their actions will be judged separately, but all information about the cases will be presented at the same time. This is an effect to minimise your time presiding over the trial._

Draco looked up to see the faces of the rest of his comrades to see that many liked it. Draco wasn't sure that he would, but he understood since the charges were nearly exactly the same this as the most expedient way to make sure that justice was served swiftly. Draco reached into his pocket and unshrunk the yellow pad of paper that he had snitched from spencer's desk. He looked down where the Reid box was to find it empty. The Hotchner box was likewise empty. Draco didn't know if Hotchner was going to be there to watch or just come in when he was called to give his testimony. Since the Ministry was putting forth all charges against Weasley, Harry did not have to provide a statement or have to be called as a witness.

Hermione and Draco had already talked to death the fact that Harry didn't need to go if he doesn't want to. He didn't need to give Weasley any more fuel to torture him with it. Harry needed to do what was best for him and not what everyone else wanted him to do. The last that Draco had seen them, they were curled around each other in front of the fire in the front room. Harry had called it camping indoors, and Hermione had just giggled. They had not left the front room for long at all and in fact had only done so when what they wanted couldn't be got from there. Even given the rocky start, it had been one of the better weekends in Draco's life.

Harry wasn't good with touch, but he at least would reach out and touch when he was near someone. Draco had found that he didn't like being touched that much. Hermione said that it was part of the touch starved. His body, and probably even his magic, didn't know how to react to it, so it felt wrong. Draco understood what she was talking about in theory, the only person real to touch him in years was his mother and Spencer. He and Spencer shared enough beds for Draco to realise that getting used to anyone else was going to take time. It made Draco happy in a small way; it meant that he had something to work on while Harry and Hermione did as well. It made the budding relationship feel more even. Like he was less of the stronger one, the better one if they all needed to do things to make this work.

A knock on the wall that separated his box from the one next to him. Draco pressed his hand on the wall, and a window opened up. Tiber Selwyn was frowning.

"Yes?" Draco didn't like him much by the Selwyn family had stayed out of the war, outside of a single member. Instead, the family had packed up and headed to France after Riddle's resurrection.

"Your little fuck friend is one of the ones who commissioned this whole affair. Where the fuck is he?"

"Lord Reid is probably with the Ministry solicitor working on his testimony for the method of extraction of the potion."

"I want to talk to him about it."

"You'll have to take that up with him. I am not his keeper."

"No but you are fucking him, and I demand that you make him talk to me."

"I am not nor have I ever fucked him," Draco said throwing the man's crude word back at him. "You want to talk to him, you go up to him and talk."

"He's been ducking me and ignoring my demands."

"I wonder why." Draco slammed his hand onto the wood and smiled at the look of shock as the window closed. Draco locked down his box tighter to where the only thing he could hear was what was being said in the centre of the room and nothing else. Draco sighed because most of the Lords thought that Draco and Spencer were having sex. Lucius had thought it as well before his death. It wasn't hard to understand their reasoning. They would never be friends with anyone that didn't serve them in some way.

Draco settled in and let his eyes drift upwards. He settled his hands in his lap and felt the cool metal on his finger. H was used to his Malfoy ring and how it felt, but this was vastly different. He started to spin the mithril ring around. It had become a nervous habit already.

There was a loud commotion that drew Draco's attention from the idiot in the next box to the front of the room. Harry and Hermione had arrived, and many people were trying to talk to them. Hermione had her determined face on, and she was making her way to the Lord and Ladies area of the Wizengamot room.

"I'm sorry you cannot go in there," one of the Aurors stated.

"Who are you to stop me?" Hermione demanded. Harry was standing behind her, but his attention was elsewhere. Draco followed his line of sight to see that the was looking at where the Weasley family was sitting. Molly Weasley was not there as she had pled guilty and was already being transferred for her seven-year stint in Azkaban. Spencer had come and told them that before they read it in the paper. Draco knew that there was s small chance that Brooks and Weasley would get stints in the other jail that had been constructed after the war. For those who were deemed insane. Draco didn't think that anyone could claim to be insane when they take something like what they were charged for to trial. There were records of the purchases going back years.

Spencer told them that Arthur and Molly had begged Ginny to take the plea deal that was offered. If for nothing else than the honour of the Weasley name. She had refused.

"I demand to see my daughter!" A man yelled from near where the Weasley family was. It drew Draco' attention fully to him. Draco had no clue who the man was.

"Mister Brooks, settle down. You have been told time and again that you will be able to see her when the trial is over and not a moment before." The Auror who spoke sounded like he had said it a million times already. The two women being charged had been kept from friends and family since they had been arrested. There was no direct contact because many suspects in the aftermath of the war had memories removed or were charmed for certain things and it was proven that someone who had visited them had done it. Draco had been livid had been a staunch supporter of it, even though it went against what his father was saying. It had been the first majorly public break between father and son.

"You will let me see my daughter or I will destroy this room!" Brooks yelled. There was a woman with him who looked like she was trying to calm him down. Draco didn't know her, but she looked a lot like Haley Brooks and was too young to be her mother, so Draco assumed it was a sister of some kind. Brooks shoved the woman, and Draco stood up, ready to go down there and do something, but two other Aurors came up to push him down into a seat. His wand was taken from him, and Draco watched as the Aurors cast several spells on him. He was also silenced as Draco could see his mouth moving but no sound coming out.

"Stop," the Auror with Hermione said. Draco spun his head around to look that way so quickly that he felt his neck protest a little. Draco stood up the rest of the way and was about to get out of his box when Hermione glared at the Auror.

"You have no reason to be rude to me, Auror Hopkirk. If I am allowed in, magic will let me in. If I am not, I will be blocked. You are here for the protection of the people in the building, and you cannot block me from going up there if I am allowed." Hermione looked at the Auror like he was the most stupid man in the room which was saying a lot given Hermione's thoughts of most of the men that Draco called his peers.

The Auror stepped aside and gave Hermione room to walk up. Harry stepped up and held out his arm for Hermione to take. Draco let himself down and made sure that his robe for the Wizengamot was covering the erection that was forming on him. He had never thought that Hermione eviscerating someone would be arousing but Draco wasn't that shocked that it was happening, he just wished he hadn't figured it out so early in their budding relationship. Going anywhere to give himself relief was out of the question.

Hermione and Harry started up the stairs and when Hermione was up on the level that the Potter and Malfoy boxes were on she stopped and looked down at the Auror with a smug look on her face. Draco watched everyone else as Harry bypassed his door and instead stepped up to Draco's. Harry opened the door and ushered Hermione inside in front of him. Two seats were already behind Draco's. Draco had never been surprised by the sentience of the magic that made up the Wizengamot chambers. Sometimes he thought that the magic of the room was more intelligent than the rest of the people that were inside.

* * *

Hermione looked straight ahead as she sat down in the chair that was behind Draco. The chairs were perfectly placed and upon a dais. Harry and herself were on either side of Draco so that their view was unrestricted. Hermione crossed her left leg over her right and sat with her back straight. She could feel everyone in the chamber's eyes on them. She tried to ignore it. She had been the one to vote for this. Given that it was just her and harry voting they agreed that a split vote would mean them not going.

When Harry had said that he wanted to go just to show his face and to be a strong presence with Draco she had been shocked. It wasn't hard to understand that Harry knew that he had to take control of how he was going to be seen from this point out. Hermione was proud of him even if his hand was shaking and she could feel how upset he was. The bond that Draco talked about forming between them was stronger than any of them thought that it was going to be. Harry had started to get really upset when Percy Weasley had started a stare down with him as soon as Harry had looked at the family. So far none of the Weasley's had said a thing to Harry, for good or for ill, so no one knew how they felt in relation to Harry. Hermione was all for keeping all of them away from Harry until after the trial, but unless Harry stayed in the Malfoy or Potter box even during the breaks, someone was going to talk to him.

Draco turned in his seat and looked at Hermione, making her blush when his eyes raked over her form. Rael had helped Hermione find an outfit off the rack that would be perfect for her to wearing, knowing that she was going to be in the public eye. Hermione didn't want to have anything with how she was presented become an issue for Draco or Harry at the moment. Later on, when things were more cemented, and they were right as a triad, Hermione didn't care if someone hated what she wore or what she was wearing wasn't the latest style. This was the public outing of their relationship, and it needed to be done correctly. With them sitting in Draco's box there was already an assumption of what went on, but Hermione wondered who was going to be the first to actually ask.

"You are beautiful, you know that right?" Draco asked.

Hermione blushed even more and ducked her head down. Draco laughed and turned back around to look out into the people gathering. It was five minutes until the start time of the trials. Draco handed back a sheet of paper and Hermione read it before passing it on. That shocked Hermione that Ginny and the Brooks woman and their attorney were allowing it. It was strange, but Hermione wondered at thought process. Did one of them think that they would get a lighter sentence if the other were hated more? The justice system in Magical England was a little behind the times, but people like Draco, Neville, and Harry were trying to fix it with small changes. Harry was being downright Slytherin about it, and Hermione shouldn't find that as amusing as she did.

The sounds in the room started to quiet down about a minute before the starting time, and Hermione felt herself starting to get nervous. Her palms started to get sweaty, and she wanted to cast a charm to dry them off, but only Draco could do magic inside the box, and it was limited to a few spells that were safety and comfort. Hermione focused on Draco to try and calm herself down. Draco was looking utterly bored, but Hermione knew that he was anything but that. He reached up to brush at his bottom lip and smiled at something. Hermione wondered if he was remembering the single kiss that they each had. Draco had Harry and Hermione kiss first, and Hermione's magic had felt slightly out of control after that. Next, she kissed Draco, and her magic had turned even more chaotic. It was unlike anything else she had ever felt before.

Harry had been hesitant when he kissed Draco and when it was over, Harry had been silent for an hour. Which had put a pall on their festivities but neither Draco or Hermione pushed Harry for anything. Harry hadn't left. He had not left the castle or even the room, but he watched. He watched Draco regale Hermione with stories about Spencer before she told him about some of the things she had done as a child. Draco was fascinated with Muggle Theme parks, and as soon as they felt comfortable enough, it was going to be one of their dates as a threesome.

"Welcome friends and colleagues. I'd say that it's going to be a good day or even good days, but we all know that it's not possible, not with what we are going to be discussing over the next few days. Today we are here for a single reason, to decide if Haley Brooks and Ginevra Weasley are guilty of using a love potion long term on two Peers. Lord Aaron Hotchner has declined his right to watch this trial and therefore will not be voting. Lord Harry Potter has abstained from voting as well, but it seems that he has decided to watch the trial." The Chief Warlock looked around and settled his eyes on Harry. Hermione reached over and laid her hand on Harry's leg. Harry gave a weak smile as he turned to look at Hermione.

The doors to the room opened, and Ginny and Haley Brooks were brought into the room. Hermione looked at Haley and wondered why she had done it. She knew that it would be brought forward, and everything explained, but Haley was beautiful, even looking gaunt and dressed in a simple set of black robes with metal handcuffs holding her hands together. Haley's eyes moved around the room and settled on a box that was near where Harry's was. She frowned and she looked pissed. It had to be the Hotchner box. Haley was upset that it was empty. Ginny looked around as well, and her eyes hardened when she was that the Potter box was empty. She continued looking around, and when her eyes landed on Draco, they widened in shock.

Draco was grinning and smirking at her. Hermione knew the instant that Ginny saw Harry behind Draco and then Hermione as well. Ginny looked pissed. She looked so upset that Hermione was sure that if her magic weren't being suppressed there would be some form of accidental magic that was aimed right at Draco. It didn't seem to be lost on her what Hermione and Harry being in the Malfoy box meant. Hermione was sure that Ginny had researched everything to do with Harry's role as a peer. She had probably done it to make sure what she could and couldn't get away with. The Auror escorting her in tried to pull her along to where she was going to sitting for the whole of the trial however she jerked in his hold and her mouth opened but nothing came out. She was spewing something, and nothing at all was heard. It was not lost on everyone there that she was yelling at either Harry, Draco, or Hermione or really all three of them. Hermione thanked whoever had cast a silencing charm on her.

The Auror finally got the upper hand by picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her all the way to the chair where he dropped her with little care. As soon as she was in the chair, shackles appeared at her legs and held them against the legs of the chair. Ginny looked like she was fighting against the hold of the chair but was unable to win at all. Haley settled into the chair with no prompting from the Auror that was her guard. Hermione pitied those Aurors who had to be with the two women long term like they were. The Aurors took up their post directly behind their charges and nodded at the Chief Warlock.

"Normally, I would read the charges against Miss Weasley and Miss Brooks-"

"Mrs Hotchner, thank you," a man at the table next to where Ginny and Haley were said as he stood up. The Chief Warlock looked at the man. He raised his eyebrow in askance. "She is contesting the dissolution of her marriage as you are well aware."

"I understand that however as of this moment she is not married and she has no right to the name Hotchner as Lord Hotchner ritually removed her from his House. You have been told time and again that no matter the outcome of this trial, she is no longer nor will she ever be married to Lord Hotchner again. It is not the duty of the Wizengamot to force marriages between people, and as Lord Hotchner never wants to set eyes on her again, it will be hard for her to convince him to marry her unless she potions him again. From what I am to understand he has already made his will on being married again known. I think his words were that he would rather die than marry anyone ever again."

Hermione looked around to find where Spencer was. He was in his box and that sort of shocked Hermione as she figured that he would be down with the witnesses that were going to be called. Spencer's face was impassive, and there was nothing on it. Hermione had never seen a face so devoid of emotion before. Hermione looked at Draco but Draco was facing forward, and his body was stiff.

"As I was saying, normally I would read the charges whoever there is a small matter that I need to take care of before we start the trial." The Chief Warlock turned where he was sitting and looked up at Malfoy box. "Why is Miss Granger in your box, Lord Malfoy? And why is Lord Potter not in his box?"

Draco leaned forward and steepled his hands in front of himself. He was glaring, even without seeing his face, Hermione could tell that.

"Before you became the Chief Warlock, no one questioned you when you brought your wife to watch trials with you, even though she barely got enough OWLs to be invited back for her sixth and seventh years." Draco sounded exactly like he always had when in school, snotty and like talking to someone was beneath him. Hermione after years of hearing it directed at her shouldn't find that as arousing as it was. She shifted in her seat to cross her legs the other way. She did not need to get aroused at all given what was going on, but it was happening, and she hoped that Draco cut short his flaying of the Chief Warlock for her own sanctity of mine if nothing else.

"It's a totally different matter because she and I were married."

"Yet, every single person in this room should understand what bringing Miss Granger, and Lord Potter means as these boxes are spelled to make sure that no one but who should be in there is allowed. I understand that deduction is beyond many of the Peers in this room, but it should be bloody damned obvious that if I have Lord Potter and Miss Granger in my box, that means we are married."

There was nothing but silence in the room. Hermione was sure that someone was going to start yelling. Hermione smirked at the people that were watching them. Harry was still beside her, but she didn't want to look at him. She didn't want to show that she was worried about him. Hermione did look at Ginny who was jerking in her bonds and screaming at them.

"We were married this weekend in a private ceremony that was presided over by a Ministry ordained Minister. We were all three checked thoroughly for spells and potions. That memory will be available for anyone who wants to intrude where they are not wanted."

"Lord Potter was recently released from a love potion, and he's already marrying you and Miss Granger? You can understand why we would be upset and worried about that."

"If you would like I will come down there and show the memory of our visit to the Book of Bound Souls," Draco offered.

The three of them had discussed that before they had got married. Harry had been worried about exactly what the Chief Warlock was saying. Harry had been the one to ask what getting married before they were actually in love would do. Draco had stated that nothing would happen, but it would protect all of them from various manoeuvrings inside of the Wizengamot. It would stop all marriage contacts from being offered and would stop Harry from being flirted with. It would also make sure that Hermione was treated with more respect than she would normally be given. Hermione stated that it would also be a great big fuck you to nearly everyone. Hermione then pointed out that the state of their marriage bed was no one's interest but their own. Of course, they had gone with a marriage ceremony that was legal and binding as soon it was done with no consummation needed. It had been from olden times when children were married to secure houses when deaths took adults out of power, and a married Lord of the House was needed. It would allow them to grow together and fall in love with no outside issues making them do something more stupid than to get married the same weekend as finding out that they were soulmates.

"Please do," The Chief Warlock said.

Draco stood up, buttoning his waistcoat before closing his robe. He looked every inch the Lord that he was. Before he could make it to the door of the box a sound that was very close to thunder echoed through the chamber. Hermione looked down to see The Record Keeper standing there in the same robes he had been wearing when they had been in the chamber to see the book. The Record Keeper was looking at the Chief Warlock.

"Do you know who I am?" The Record Keeper asked.

"Yes," the Chief Warlock spat at him.

"Still bitter over the fact that you have no soulmate? Your family never has because your love of money is greater than any love you could ever give another Witch or Wizard. Do not blame magic for your own failings." The Record Keeper turned around to look at the people who were there for the trial. "Some of you have not come to visit me, but I am The Record Keeper for the Book of Bound Souls. I am here today to declare Draco Lucian Malfoy, Harry James Potter, and Hermione Jane Granger are soulmates. What magic had put together let no Witch or Wizard tear asunder."

The Record Keeper left again with the clap of thunder. There was silence again. Draco sat back down, unbuttoning his waistcoat and draping his robe closing to either side of him. He was staring at the Chief Warlock.

"Ginevra Weasley is charged with one hundred and seventy-three counts of potioning a Wizard with a love potion, with attempted line theft, and with stealing three thousand galleons from Lord Harry Potter. Haley Brooks is charged with eight hundred and thirty-two counts of dosing a Wizard with a love potion, one thousand two hundred and seven counts of rape, attempted line theft, and theft of seventy-five thousand galleons from Lord Aaron Hotchner."

Hermione felt like throwing up. She heard a chime and looked around to see what made it. The Chief Warlock nodded at a man.

"How exactly do we have such specific numbers on the counts of rape and potioning?"

"Lord Spencer Reid has spent the weekend reading over the journals. For Miss Weasley, the counts are lowered to reflect what we can actually count for, no matter if it was her or her brother who potioned him. For Miss Brooks, she kept detailed journals. From the little that I read every single time that she potioned him she had sex with him and later on more and more sex with him, and it was all documented. Lord Reid will be testifying as to what he read later."

The man sat down, and the Chief Warlock looked like he was looking for anyone else to ask a question. Hermione wondered if there were spells that would make sure that she didn't throw up. It would not look good for her to throw up.

* * *

The beginning of the trial was hellish to Harry. He had to listen as the details of the evidence collection and how it was all certified as well as Spencer giving his testimony on what he read and how he came to the numbers that he did for both cases. Harry was not shocked to find that Spencer had basically spent a month time turning to gather all of the evidence needed.

Draco's hands on the arms of his chair got tighter and tighter, and Harry wondered why.

"Lord Reid, it's stated here that you will be the only one with access to the journals of Haley Brooks, why is that?" Newt Boyles asked, who was acting as the Ministry solicitor for this. Harry was kind of glad of that. Newt was wonderful and perfect.

"Due to the intimate nature of what was contained in those journals, the DMLE is happy to keep it to where it's not available for regular consumption."

"Why you?"

"Besides the fact that they wanted only a single person? I can read twenty thousand words and minute, and I have a perfect eidetic memory. I will be able to answer and tell you exactly word for word what Miss Brooks wrote about what she did from the first day that she started to keep the journals. Which was when she decided that she wanted Lord Aaron Hotchner for her spouse, no matter what he said about it until she was caught writing in the journal when Aurors entered the room that she had given birth in."

Harry closed his eyes and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Spencer would never be able to forget the abuse that his soulmate had taken at the hands of the woman that Hotchner had to have loved at some point to even start a relationship with her. Harry didn't even have that. He had never liked Ginny that way. What both of the women had done to them was horrifying for various reasons. The length of how long that Hotchner had been under the potion and for Ginny what she was trying to do with it.

Spencer's testimony turned from Brooks to Ginny and Harry wanted to not listen, but he had to. He had to listen to every single damned word because it was the only way that he could protect himself. The press wasn't going to let this go. He would have to talk about it and relive it time and again so it would be better if he heard it all for himself instead of getting piecemeal from everyone else.

"What did you find out from the journal that Miss Weasley had kept while she was in Hogwarts?" Newt asked when the questioning turned from Ginny's lawyer to him.

"That she has been in love with Lord Potter from the day that she met him when she was ten and he eleven. Which was all of ten minutes when Mrs Weasley helped Harry figure out how to get onto the train at King's Cross. From then on she developed an obsession. When she was saved by him in the Chamber of Secrets the next year at Hogwarts, it cemented in her mind that the only reason that he had gone down there was to save her. Despite from what I have been told he could barely remember who she was and saw her like a younger sibling. That was also the year that Harry's deep affection for then Miss Granger was noticed by Mrs Weasley." Spencer never looked up at the stands, his focus always on who was asking him questions. Harry kind of envied him that. If it were Harry there, Harry would be looking at Draco or anyone else that was being talked about, but Spencer was entirely too damned good at ignoring everyone around him. It was kind of sad because it had to have been learned at Hogwarts.

"You knew though. How?" Newt asked.

"Because as much as I know that people with soulmates can fall in love with someone else, it's rare if that person is right there. By fourth year, Lord Potter should have been trying to win Miss Granger's affections. By the end of school, I would have expected that they would have been lovers. THere is also the fact that Ginevra Weasley could be Lily Potter's daughter in looks. While I have issues with parents that this body knows well, I could never sleep with a man or a woman who looked like my parents as close as Ginevra does Lily Potter."

"It's kind of off-putting."

"I know that there are some who are quite into that sort of thing but it's not my kink at all. I'd actually not touch someone with a Death Eaters cut off cock if they looked that much like my mother."

There were titters of laughter around the room. Harry cracked a smile, and he felt a little bit lighter about it all.

"You asked how I knew though and that's answered in the journals of Lucius Malfoy. Draco had me reading over them for anything that he needed to know. There was a Seer in the Malfoy line that stated that Draco was the soulmate of the Potter heir and the brightest witch of the age. There is no other witch, and as Harry is the last of his line, he has to be the Potter Heir, so Draco's soulmates were discovered. Lucius told Draco every single year from his third year up that he had no soulmates, according to a family Seer. Lucius did not want his son paired with Harry, and then just months after Miss Granger started at Hogwarts she was touted as the brightest witch of the age. It's not hard to understand that he wouldn't want his son with a Muggle-born. Not with his stance with Tom Riddle."

"You used an accident in the Auror ranks to make sure that no one suspected what was going on with the flushing draughts that were given to Harry."

"I had no clue what kind of backups that Ginevra had in place. It was a shock and meant that she couldn't convince him to not go in that day. At that point, Harry had missed no training days, and there is a certain number allowed. Of course, the ones that he used this past week are not affecting him as it was an allowed absence since he couldn't do magic and was weaker than anyone would like him to be to do training. He's recovered well and is ready to begin work again, once the trial is over."

"There is little that can be done to get her off isn't there?" Newt asked with a grin.

"Oh, Ginevra Weasley is screwed. There are detailed records taken from the potion shop where she bought the potion, the new and the old version. She used Harry's own money, which can be tracked as it was not spent by him. The Goblins did not like that Harry gave her such a free pass on using the money. He didn't need it and didn't miss what he gave her. She has never denied that she gave it to him just that she is a Pure-blood and therefore the laws shouldn't apply to her. I think that she ranted that when she was finally brought in for all of the Ministry to hear. I only heard about it."

Harry felt his body start to tense because he hadn't fought the damned war to have the Pure-bloods be untouchable again. Harry jumped when he felt a hand on his knee where his hand was gripping tightly. Harry looked down at the hand and knew that it was Hermione. He followed the arm up to Hermione's face and smiled at her. It felt good, and Harry knew that it was the bond wanting the touch of his mates. It calmed him though in ways that he never knew were possible. Another hand joined, and Harry looked up at Draco who was smiling at him softly. Harry covered Draco's hands with his own and threaded their fingers together. Draco turned back around but kept his hand there until Harry let go when Spencer's testimony was finished.

Harry knew that he was jumpy and that it would take a long while before he would feel up to having a relationship that was even and equal and everything that he truly wanted. He deserved to have a stable and good relationship after the hell that he had gone through in his life. Harry hated that he was so messed up that he couldn't start to build a relationship like that from the beginning. His only solace was that Draco and Hermione could build that while he watched.

The thought of sex with Hermione was strange. He could feel that he wanted it when he was ready, but there was such a big part of him that still saw her as a sister, as a best friend. The change over would be strange, but Harry wanted it. He wanted to give his heart to his best friend because he knew that she would never do anything to hurt him. She was passionate, but she had got better at understanding what her intelligence could do to hurt people.

Harry and Hermione had grown up in so many ways during the war and at the end of it. Harry knew that he was more solid than he ever had been, even with the disconnect that he was feeling. That disconnect was gone though. He never wanted to feel it again. Ginny had tried to break him in so many ways, horrible ways that started with the potion and ended with his death when he no longer was needed. The joke would be on her though because the point where he was no longer needed was when she and he had a kid. As long as she was a mother to the Potter Heir no one would question what she did after he died. Though, she was never going to birth the Potter heir because magic stopped soulmates from betraying their loves in such a way. Hotchner and Brooks had a child but from what Harry had read in the details the child's DNA and magic. The DNA had been a shock, but after it was found that magic could show DNA with the correct spells, which had been found out in the Department of Mysteries, it was being used a lot. Jack Hotchner was totally his father's child. A clone of sorts. There was no magic inside of the child except for Hotchner's and no DNA. Hermione had called him a clone.

There were witnesses after witnesses that were brought in by the defence and Harry tuned them out. He didn't need to hear about how good he and Ginny were together from the mouth of someone who Harry had thought was a friend. Most were GInny's actual friends, but Harry had thought that they were close as well. He wondered what kind of money Ginny offered them to sit on that stand and talk about how happy he had been with her even though there was no point in the relationship that he hadn't been potioned into it with her.

Harry thought about Saturday and Sunday, just getting used to being around each other. They had all three taken a nap in the front room on Saturday morning after Libby had delivered breakfast to them and the food had put them to sleep. When Harry had woke up, he had felt a lot better than he had in years. Draco had been asleep in a chaise where he had dropped after they had eaten breakfast at the table that Paddy had conjured for them. It had disappeared as they left it and Harry wondered where it had come from. Hermione had taken the love seat, curled into a ball of sorts on it and that left the long couch for Harry. Draco had more height on him, but that chaise looked well used so when Draco settled onto it, Harry had said nothing.

They had woke up within minutes of each other with Harry waking first. He had just watched Draco and Hermione sleep for the few minutes there was between him waking and Draco waking up. Harry hadn't protested when Spencer had a Healer take care of Harry's eyesight. It was nice waking up without having to put on his glasses. Being able to see all the time was nice. After waking, Draco had just stretched in the chaise and looked around. He settled on Harry and smiled at him before they looked at Hermione. It was like she knew that they were looking at her and that was what woke her up. It was nice, and it was so different than anything else in his life.

Draco had slipped into his office in his wing for a little bit after they woke up. Harry and Hermione had split up and started to look around the castle. The wings were lovely, and Harry did like his, but he was drawn to the main one. The three bedrooms, as well as the master bedroom in the master wing, were perfect. It didn't take but a look in each room to figure out whose room was whose. Hermione's was in the middle with Draco's on the left and Harry's on the right. Draco's room was in greens and Hermione's in soft reds while Harry's were black. He kind of liked it. The only way to get into the bedrooms was through the master bedroom which had a large bed dominating it in the centre. There was a small wall that the bed was pressed against that had shelves running up it. The three single rooms were connected to each other with Hermione's room being the go-between for the two other rooms. It was a beautiful set-up, and Harry could see himself sleeping more in the main room than his single bedroom, but he could understand wanting a room that was close but not with the other two. It would give them time alone and time to just be without having to think about another person in the bed. Draco had chosen the perfect place to live.

That it was so close to Spencer's a bonus. Draco worried about him a lot, and Harry could understand that, especially in the months to come. Spencer hadn't processed what all of this meant for his soulmate. He would stop and think, and it would crush him. Harry had a few years under the thumb of the potion, but for Hotchner, it had been almost half of his life. That percent would drop the older he got, but it was still a significant portion of his life and would be forever. Harry wanted to be there for him, even if it was just making sure that Draco was there for him.

Lunch had been a simple and easy affair with them eating it in the kitchen. Libby had popped their food over to them to give them some time alone. The food had been simple burgers and chips but had tasted better than anything else that Harry had ever eaten, including the food at Hogwarts. Draco had bought a four-person bar table, including stools for a corner in the kitchen. They had set themselves up there to eat, and it had been really lovely. Moving around each other to get things like drink and napkins to eat with had been good. Touches on hips when passing behind each other or even just on the shoulder had been so different than anything that Harry had ever seen before. His uncle had never been touchy with his aunt, and in fact, it had been quite the opposite. His uncle gave his aunt a kiss when he left and when he came home, and there was no other affection given. Harry understood that it wasn't normal was, but it didn't help that it was the only real relationship she had ever seen. He didn't count Molly and Arthur Weasley as Molly had ruled that relationship with a firm hand, probably in revenge for being forced into the marriage. Arthur was near subservient in that relationship.

Saturday dinner had gone just about the same. They talked about anything and everything. Sunday had dawned with rain and a soft thunderstorm. Spencer arrived just after brunch and Harry was still pretty damned sure that Draco had bullied him home.

The conversation that led up to the brunch had been about ways to protect themselves from everything that was going to be happening. Harry had been the one to ask about what would happen if they married. Draco had been unable to say that anything bad would happen but that it would seem really weird and he wouldn't be shocked if they were going to have to submit that it wasn't done with compulsions or potions. Spencer had offered to check all of that when he had been the one to stand up and marry them. He had been ordained as a minister for the Ministry just because the process had been fun just after he turned seventeen. Harry still found it funny that someone had become a Magical Minister just because it seemed fun.

"I call Harry Potter to the stand," Ginny's lawyer called out after his last witness was dismissed. Harry stood up and leaned over to press a simple kiss to Hermione's lips before doing the same to Draco as he passed him. Harry had dressed himself in a suit that he had purchased after the war for all of the damned events he was invited to.

"Mr Potter," the lawyer started.

"Lord Potter, please," Harry said with a look at the man that was so nice. The man flushed and looked down at his notes. "I am the last Potter, so there is no question on if I am Lord or not. Even if I wasn't, I am married to another Lord, and therefore the courtesy is given to me of that title. Just as Hermione is Lady Granger, she chose to keep her name so that it would be easier for her. Lady Hermione Potter-Malfoy is a mouthful and given that she has a lot of accolades under her name it made sense to keep it. Of course, in seriously formal settings she will be called that as I am Lord Potter-Malfoy, and so is Draco. I'll forgive you for the faux pas now but I will not in the future."

"Sorry, Lord Potter."

"Like I said, you are forgiven, this time." Harry crossed his right leg over his left and stared at the lawyer who looked like he was very nervous.

"Why did you feel the need to get married? So soon after being freed from a potion? One has to wonder if you were even clear of mind enough to consent to the marriage. Consummation would be impossible on consent front as from what I am to understand about potioning like this it's generally considered bad form to have sex so close to being freed from a potion that you have lived under for as long as the Ministry is trying to say that you are."

"Well, I guess then I will have to educate you on the marriage rite that we went under. There was no consummation. The rite was one of the older ones that were performed among young lords who needed to be married to be able to claim the right to be lord of their house before they were old enough to actually even want a spouse. The marriage is legal and binding. I always hoped that I had a soulmate. Ginny convinced me just after the war that she was my mate and I didn't need a book telling me that we were. I went over the weekend even though I knew in my heart when Draco told me that he was my mate that he was telling the truth. I wanted to see it. I wanted to see my name in the most magical book in all of the world.

"As to the reason that I married them both so soon, it's because I am afraid. No one wants to talk about it, but certain things are allotted to Lords of Houses that are married that are not allowed to others. Politically now Hermione and Draco both can shield me from what is to come. There is also the fact that a love potion won't work on someone who is married. It's stupid that I want it, but I feel better about this all. You've not been potioned or if you have been no one has figured it out. I was violated. My body, my magic, my mind. Everything that I have lived for the past four years has been an utter lie. If getting married to the two people who will love me for who I am and nothing more, nothing less, at some point in my life will protect me in ways that I've never had before, I'll do it again and again. I was forced to live in the Muggle world every single summer as a child. With a family that hated me for who I was. Draco asked me Sunday after we married why I never feared Riddle and his Death Eaters and the truth is that I faced that kind of hatred when I had no ability to fight back. I was used to it. I had no reason to fear them because they are not any different than my Aunt and Uncle."

"You aren't afraid that they are both using you?"

"Using me for what? Draco has just as much money with me, even with his father attempting to ruin them financially but giving money hand over fist to Riddle. The Goblins have made sure that he's set for life and so am I. Hermione has always had access to my money. I would have given her anything before marrying her or finding out that she was my soulmate. I was actually going to talk to her about getting a flat that was bigger with two bedrooms once she was done with her classes and was fully an intern at the Boyles firm. It would better for her than to have to go in and out of the Magical realm and back to her Muggle parent's home. I was also not doing well at living alone and Ginny's push for her and me to live together before we married made me feel like she wouldn't do it if I had Hermione living with me."

"Some would say that Ginny had right to want that. I mean you already stated that you cared more about Hermione's happiness than Ginny's."

"Maybe if Ginny hadn't tried to run my life the way that she wanted and actually listened to what I wanted I might have given a flying fuck about what she wanted."

"Lord Potter," the Chief Warlock said.

"Sorry, but Ginny wanted me to do what she wanted with my life and even under a potion I wasn't going to do that. I am also greatly offended by the fact that it seems that it doesn't matter that I was under a potion. I was not willing in the relationship. I was there under duress, and yet it seems like I am being treated like I'm a leper because I had a friend. I still don't have any feelings for Hermione that are not friendly. Yes, my magic feels really good around her and other than the kiss when we were married and that kiss I gave her before I came down here, we have not kissed, made out, seen each other naked since the war, or had sex. I will never forsake friends for someone else. Hermione has stood with me for years. She's done stupid shit because I knew that the adults in my life had no want to protect me. Ginny wasn't there for most of it. Yes, she went into the Ministry with me in my fifth year, but she followed her brother during the Triwizard TOurnament in shunning me. I will not feel sorry because she is an entitled little brat who thought that she needed to potion someone to keep them. Even Death Eaters didn't do that. Of course, they found spouses that were just as fucking dark as they were. Still, I'm sure that if Ginny had looked hard enough, she would have found someone who would love her for her but she wanted someone that didn't want her, and she didn't care about anything but herself in it all."

"Ginny holds that you went down in the chamber for her."

"I went down to save my friend's sister and to save Hermione. In all truth, I went down because no one else it seemed gave two shites about what was going on. The adults in the school were saving face instead of telling anyone what was going on. Hermione figured out it was a Basilisk before any of the other students in the school. She tried to save herself from it but failed. Don't get me started on Lockhart and how he even fucking got a job there. The whole school situation is more political than it is what is in the best interest of the school. Otherwise, no one would have cared about what was going on besides getting rid of the monster that was harming children in my second year. Dementors wouldn't have been put there in my third. In my fourth, no one would have made me participate in the mockery that was the Tournament because I was underage."

"No more questions." Ginny's lawyer sat down, and Newt stood up. He smiled at Harry who smiled back at him.

"You have had a trying week, Lord Potter. I'm glad that you have found something and someone who will protect you."

"I find myself with friends now that I never knew I could have when in school. Spencer is a magicsend for me. He's honest when he can be but doesn't lie if he can't answer something. He's told me things about Draco that make me see him for who he is and not who he has had to be to save his own life because the Magical World doesn't care about the home lives of children who they know are being abused. The fact that Death Eaters, no matter how they came about, can raise children in dark and disgusting homes with no one wondering how they come out that way is horrid. Hell, before me there was no orphanage for Magical kids to go to. Draco and Hermione are going to do everything they can to help me make sure that the Magical world is a place that we can be proud of."


	9. Chapter 8

# Chapter 8

_October 13, 2000_

Draco disliked the Goblins at the moment. He was worn out and hungry. They had invited him to eat with them, and since it had been the first time ever the invitation had been extended, he had not felt like he could refuse. Their food was interesting, and that was all Draco was going to say about that. Draco sighed as he dropped his bag down on the table inside his sitting room. Apparating straight into the castle was nice. He could do it at Spencer's, but he felt like he should just appear in his Manor.

There was a tray of food on his desk for him. He picked up the sandwich that was there as well as a bite of the fruit that was there. It was a long slice of melon. He alternated bites between the sandwich and the fruit until both were gone. He grabbed the second slice of fruit before working his tie loose. He wanted his bed. It was super late, and Draco wasn't even sure what time it was.

It had been two days since the Wizengamot had convicted Ginny Weasley and Haley Brooks. The Defence solicitor had fought it, but after a single day of evidence and testimony, they wanted to hear no more. There was really no chance of them getting off, the only issue was how much time they should serve. Draco had got to watch as Ginevra lost her shit when she had been out into Azkaban for life. She really had thought she would get off with community service or something like it given she was a Pure-blood. Draco had been glad to see a Half-blood and a Pure-blood get the same sentence. The only difference was that Ginevra hadn't the time to do to Harry what Brooks had done to Hotchner.

The Weasley family had been found mostly innocent. With only Molly and Ginevra, the two females going to jail, the other males were fine. Ron had surprising given over all of his memories and allowed himself to be interrogated for hours and hours. He wanted nothing to do with going to jail for what happened. He threw his mother and sister under a bus so to speak, and it fits well with the person that Draco remembered from school. Draco was very happy about the fact that Hermione had separated herself from him a long time ago. Ron would not take well at all to Draco's intention with her and Draco would probably have disregarded any relationship between them in getting what he wanted. She would have never become what she was supposed to be with him. He would have held her back. Ron Weasley would not do well at all with a woman doing as well as Hermione was going to when it came to the law.

"Hello, handsome," Hermione said as Draco entered his bedroom. He looked up and saw Hermione laying on her front on the bed. Her legs were in the air, and her head was propped on her hand. She was grinning at him, naked as the day she was born. Draco swallowed, forgetting that he had a bit of melon in his mouth. He coughed that up and ignored it hitting the floor. There was only a single thing on Draco's mind, and it had nothing to do with what he had on his mind before he had entered his bedroom.

"Hello." Draco had no ability to say anything more than that.

"Aren't you a little overdressed?" Hermione asked as she started to kick her feet back and forth.

"I guess that depends on what you have in mind," Draco said finally finding his voice. He did start to unbutton his shirt. Draco figured that Hermione would be the first to approach him for sex, but he didn't think that it would be so soon or before she had sex with Harry first. Draco kind of hated the fact that he had two virgins for spouses. It made him not want to approach them for anything at all. He was more than willing to wait, but if they had some kind of experience, Draco could figure them out better.

"What do you mean?"

"Well if we are doing some heavy petting or even just oral, I do not need to be naked. If however, you want full-on penetrative sex with me, even the clothes can be negotiated as long as my prick is out."

"And if I demanded that you were naked, even if all we were going to do was talk?" Hermione asked she was grinning though.

"Well, I'd call you a tease and strip naked, reminding you that I like nakedness and I cannot control my prick when you are naked and spread out before me."

"Newt had what was called a spa day. Many of the partners and a few others were shipped off to a few places across the city, depending on what they wanted. Newt took me with him. He called it keeping the firm's image good. It was a full-service place that has spells and those who were well taught in them for various one time or multiple time body spells. I never thought about spells for permanent hair removal. I just assumed there was just the ones that Pomfrey taught us when we hit puberty. I went with Newt in his limo and looked over the paperwork. Newt offered me whatever I wanted at the firm's cost, and I know that it was because he wants me to stay after my internship is over because of who I am married to, but others are getting places because of who they are. I might as well do it as well and make sure that they see what they could lose if they piss me off. I'll take the perks as well as the scrutiny."

"And what did you do?" Draco tossed his dress shirt and suit jacket over the back of the chair. Xibby would take care of it after he was asleep. Draco was happy that Jibby had learned all of the wonderful things that were needed to clean clothes, so he didn't have to send them out for dry cleaning at any point.

"I got a nice massage as well as a full mani/pedi before I was taken into a room where I had more people around me naked than I have ever had around me before. I settled for the full deal. I don't have to shave my arms, legs, anywhere ever again. If you want to see what else I had done, you'll have to get naked and come over here." Hermione wiggled her pert little ass for a few seconds. Draco started on his pants as he kicked off his shoes. He was tempted to vanish his socks but did not want to hear Xibby complaining about him losing more socks and her having to go and get more. Draco had a habit of vanishing them when he was too tired to lean over and take them off. Draco settled for sitting down in the chair to take off his socks before he stood up to let his trousers drop down to the floor. He was just in a pair of light pink pants in front of her.

"I had my chest hair removed as soon as my mother let me do it. While my hair on my head is white blonde, the hair on my chest was darker, and I didn't like it. So I had it done at a place much like yours one summer. I also had the hair on my balls removed. Mother called me vain but given that I knew that I like males as well as females and I liked oral sex a great deal I figured that I could at least do a little to make it more enjoyable for my partner."

"And how do you prefer the sex of your partners to be?"

"I really don't care, but I do like giving head to a male who at least tries to control his hair down there. The only pussy I've eaten has been hairless, but I'll try anything once. It's not like if it's there, I can't remove it for the session and then it can be removed by a professional permanently at a later time." Draco hooked his fingers into the elastic on his pants and let them slide down his legs before he squeezed his legs together to let them drop the rest of the way. Draco stepped out of them as well as his trousers as he walked toward the bed. Hermione stayed like she was, but her hand moved, and Draco heard the door shut behind him. Draco thought for a few seconds about where Harry was. Draco was in his wing of the house which was as far from Harry's wing as one could get. He had done that on purpose. He hadn't wanted to put them apart from each other.

Draco didn't ask about him though. Hermione was here, and she wanted this. Draco knew that he would be able to tell if she changed her mind during sex, there was just enough awareness of each of his mates in it that he could tell when they were truly upset which for Harry was more than normal but given everything he understood it and gave Harry space when he wanted it. Draco buried his fingers into Hermione's hair, adoring how soft it was and how his fingers moved through it freely. She had started to take a lot better care of it after learning the spells her hair could actually tolerate as well as hair care potions. Draco tipped her head up to where he could place a chaste kiss on her lips.

"Stay," Draco said, his voice rough with arousal. There was no mistaking that his prick was hard and right there in front of Hermione's face. That part of things would come a lot later. Draco slipped up onto the bed beside her before moving to straddle her waist. He rubbed his prick against her ass cheeks and leaned down to bite at her neck. "I'll look at your pretty slit later."

"Draco?"

"I'm going to survey your landscape from behind before I flip you onto your back and fuck you."

"Oh," Hermione said sounding breathless at the thought of it. Draco licked the back of her neck and felt her shiver. He nipped at the skin at the top of her spine as he slipped down just a little more to be able to kiss down her spine. Draco didn't want to draw this out, but he wanted her comfortable with him on top of her and with his body rubbing on her. Draco did not want to discuss things that she had or hadn't done with Weasley, that would make his prick run and hide. Hermione's back was flawless, and Draco loved the look of it. Hermione was beautiful to Draco. Hermione still had her back arched to keep her head on her hand, and when Draco reached the end of her spine, he slipped his thumb between her cheeks and spread them. His knowledge of sex spells was second to none in his years at Hogwarts, except for Spencer who had been the one to teach him all of them. Not because of Spencer's sexual proclivities but it was just another facet of magic that Spencer wanted to know everything about. Draco mouthed the words of the spell that would clean her out. Hermione's head dropped to the bed, and she shuddered at the feel of Draco's magic pushing onto her magic and into her body. Draco brushed a thumb over her hole, mouthing the words of a lube spell. It was one of the best things about magic, making sex so much better. Draco spread her cheeks just a little more before he nipped at the apex of the crack, he sat up rubbed his cock into the little valley made by her cheeks, the lube there spreading to his cock.

"Oh fuck," Hermione said.

"Not yet. Don't worry, I'm not going there tonight, but I want to feel it." Draco let go of her cheeks and braced his hands at her shoulders, thrusting his cock between her cheeks. After a few passes, Hermione thrust up as Draco thrust and Draco felt his eyes cross a little. Draco bent his arms until he could drop down to his elbows, his mouth right at her ear. "DO you want that, Hermione?"

"What?"

"Double penetration? Harry in your hungry little cunt and me sliding home in your arse. To fuck you until you can't take it anymore. To fill up both of your greedy little holes with our cocks and then our release?" Draco slid one his hands between Hermione's stomach and the bed before trailing down to rub his fingers over the apex of her sex. There was no hair there. Draco groaned and buried his face in her hair.

"Or have both of us in your little cunt?"

Hermione came with a cry, her body trying to buck Draco off. He pulled his hand free of her body and muttered a cleaning spell to get the lube off of her arse and his prick. Draco helped her roll onto her back and looked down at her. She was still breathing heavy from her orgasm and looked so very fetching with the blush on her cheeks. Her tits were heaving with the breaths that she was taking.

"I always wondered what kind of sexual creature you were," Draco said as he splayed his hand on her stomach. "If you were one of the girls who wanted the lights off and the covers drawn, and after it was over you would leave the bed and go back to yours. I'm kind of glad you aren't because that is so far from the man that I am. After we are used to each other and not worried about keeping things in the bedroom, I want to have you and Harry over every single bit of furniture that can support our weight. To eat your cunt out on the table we eat our meals on. To fuck you over the couch. To have Harry and I take turns with it. Fuck you until you can't take anymore and beg for us to finish."

"Draco," Hermione said, and she held out her hand. Draco slipped his hand into hers and let her pull him down until she crashed their lips together. Draco let her lead on the kiss, just tempering her excitement so that they didn't hurt each other. She was very good at kissing, but it was evident that her past partner had been lacking himself. It spoke of the type of person that Ron Weasley was. Hermione let he legs fall open, and he settled himself down, his prick rubbing on her clit as he thrust into her. Hermione cried out into his mouth as he kept thrusting.

"Is this what you need?" Draco asked as he pulled back to look at her face as he rubbed his prick on her clit.

"Yes."

"Good." Draco kept it up, kissing her when her mouth was lined up with his and just watching her when it wasn't. Draco rubbed her to a second orgasm, her legs tightening on his hips so hard that Draco wasn't sure that he wasn't going to have a bruise from it. Draco shifted to his knees to look down at her, Hermione was covered in sweat and her body heaving with the deep breaths she was taking. She was beautiful like that. She was watching him with not wary eyes but with very interested ones.

Draco leaned up to kiss her, his hand slipping down. She was dripping she was so wet for him. He slipped his middle finger inside of her, finding her hymen very quickly. Draco twisted his hands to where he could press his thumb down on her skin. They had discussed protection against pregnancy and Hermione had a spell put on herself at her last healer visit and had one placed every single year. There was no chance of it failing. Draco didn't need to worry about that at all and really even if he did and she got pregnant, there was no way that he was going to ever try and stop her from working. They would find a nice nanny, and between the three of them, they could spend more than enough time with the baby.

"I'm going to cast a targeted pain relief spell, it'll dull pain but leave you able to feel everything else."

Hermione bit her lip and nodded, pushing herself up to where she could see Draco's hand with a finger buried inside of her. Draco uttered the spell, glad that it was done wandlessly because as much as he liked to have sex, holding his wand up inside of her was not something that he wanted to do. Draco felt his magic on her skin as he placed the spell on her. It covered the entire area so even if he were to take her anally, she would have no pain from it. It was a really good spell that he had learned because with the older generations placing so much on virginity to enter a marriage for no other reason than they were assholes who felt that women should be virgins but men don't have to be. Many of the girls in Hogwarts lost their virginity as soon as a good boy offered.

"Oh," Hermione uttered as Draco pulled his hand free of her body.

"I do like that spell. It works for more than just popping your little cherry. Harry and I can place it before both of us taking you or even just placing it so that we can fuck you back to back without worrying about making you ache. Really it's for the fact that I would love to fuck you over and over again and I wouldn't want you to have any discomfort."

Hermione giggled at his words, and Draco knew that she knew that it wasn't the truth, just more of him boasting about his sexual prowess. Draco didn't want her thinking about anything but sex and how good it was going to feel. Draco rubbed his hands down her legs before spreading them just a little more and rubbing the head of his cock over her hole before he pushed with intent. She was relaxed and so wet that it was actually a little hard for him to get the head of his cock inside of her. Draco let go with one hand and used it to line himself up. He slowly pushed inside until his head brushed against her hymen. Draco pulled out and pushed in several times before he stopped as he was pressed against it. When Hermione nodded, Draco pushed forward, breaking her hymen gently. He watched her face as she flinched, knowing that there should be something, but there was nothing but Draco pushing in the rest of the way.

Draco let himself drop forward as he pressed all the way inside of her. He rolled his hips a little, rubbing all over her body as he did. Hermione opened her eyes as she settled down when Draco stopped moving. Draco reached up and brushed her bangs from her face. The rest of her hair was a mess around her head from where she had tossed her head around while he had been playing with her cunt.

"You know I can understand some of what guys are attracted to when it comes to virgins. The thought that Harry and I are going to be the only ones in here. To have you only ever feel this." Draco rocked his hips a little bit, Hermione bit her lip as she tried to hold in her gasp at the feeling. "When Harry and I are in there. It's so heady."

"Draco, please. Move."

"Of course, Dear. Draco leaned down and took her mouth in a desperate kiss as he set up the rhythm that he wanted for fucking her. It was perfect for her first time. He didn't want to be rough with her, but he wanted her to know how much he wanted her. His magic had turned him into her, and his magic wanted this. Emotional intimacy would come, but sexual intimacy would help with their bond. Harry would be able to feel what they were doing, and Draco felt a little bad about that, but he wouldn't feel arousal. Harry would just feel how much they felt. He would feel the connection they were making.

Draco felt his body starting to sweat, a slight sheen on his skin. Hermione's hands gripped his waist as she met him thrust for thrust. Hermione came for a third time so softly and gently that if it weren't for her nails digging into Draco's skin, he wouldn't have known it. Draco pushed inside of her as far as he could get as he lost his ability to hold on. Hermione tipped her head back, gasping as she felt Draco empty himself inside of her. Draco rocked into her a few times as his prick twitched with the last vestiges of his orgasm. Draco kept his hips pressed into her as she came down and all but went lax into the bed. Draco nuzzled down her cheek and neck before he kept going downward. He licked each of her nipples before he kept on going down. Hermione let him go with a frown. Draco smirked at her before he licked her cunt. Hermione's legs fell down beside her, and she pushed up into her arms again, watching Draco as he licked at their combined releases that were leaking from her. Draco stayed away from her clit, and when she started to writhe a little, he stopped.

Pushing himself up, Draco stayed above her, staring down at her fully relaxed face. She reached up and pulled Draco down t her, licking into his mouth. She gasped when she tasted their combined flavours on his tongue. Draco moaned into the kiss as he tasted the addition of her mouth to it.

"How are you?" Draco asked.

"I don't know." Hermione frowned as she spoke and wiggled a little. Like she was testing her body. "I don't feel any different."

"Nor would you. It's not like your virginity had any effect on your body or your magic. It's a social and outdated construct. Though when you can't trust anyone, I can understand not trusting anyone to be around you when you are that vulnerable." Draco pushed himself up to his hands and knees before laying down to one side. He manhandled Hermione until they were pressed back to front. Draco slid one leg over hers and propped his head upon his hand. With his free hand, he covered Hermione's hip. He wanted to go to sleep like they were, smelling of sex and sweat. "Are you staying here tonight or going back to your rooms?"

"Here. I don't want to wake up Harry. he was asleep before I came down here."

"Speaking of Harry." Draco reached out and linked their hands. He brought their linked hands up to kiss the back of her hand. "I figured that you and he would lose your virginities to each other."

"Harry had enough issues about everything going on, and he would worry. I don't want him to have a bad experience because he is worried about making it some big thing for me. He's not ready, and I understand that. He might not be ready for a long time, and I can live with that. I wanted my first time to be something nice and while it would have been nice with Harry use both fumbling around in the dark would not have been good. This way I can focus on him and make it good for him. I want to know those spells though. All of them."

"I'll get you the book from Spencer's library. He had a family member on his mother's side that made the be all to end all for sex manuals and the spells for it. Everything is in there, including the protection spell but all of them are cautioned that one needs to be taught them before trying them on someone. The man was upset that there was no sex manual at all. There was, of course, the Kama Sutra but no spells are involved inside of it except for how to transfigure everyday objects into cocks to try oral skills on." Draco pressed a kiss to her shoulder before letting his head fall down onto his pillow. He let go of her hand to pull her just that much closer to himself before he let his eyes fall closed.

"I don't...I don't love you, Draco but I care for you. I want this to work, but that's not why I wanted sex."

"You don't strike me as one who denies herself what she wants when she figures it out. It's okay if you use me for sex until Harry's ready. I won't hide it from Harry, so if he does start to get upset about it, sex will stop."

"Harry told me that he was fine and it didn't seem like he was lying. I don't see him lying about that. He might...what do you think about him watching?"

"He can watch all he wants. I will stop sex though if he freaks out. His freakouts will be more important than our Harry."

"Yes." Hermione's body started to go lax like she was finally letting herself relax. Draco pulled her a little closer, enjoying having her in his bed. He wanted her to never leave, but he knew that she would need to. They were ready for that kind of relationship. They probably weren't ready for a sexual relationship but denying her what she wanted would just make her resent him. He could work with feelings of it being too much if she wasn't ready for the sex they had.

Draco made himself vow to never regret any second of the relationship that he had with either one of them. Regrets were for weaker men, and he had proven that he was not weak.

_October 14, 2000_

Hermione settled into the kitchen of the castle as Harry worked on his lunch. Auror training had been cancelled that morning as all of the trainers had got sick after had a bit of breakfast. Food poisoning had two ways to work its way out of the system, the first was a potion that would remove it, forcefully with about two hours of straight puking or naturally with not nearly as violent puking but over a period of time. Harry had stayed at the castle for the morning and had just relaxed, according to what Hermione had heard from the Elves when she had arrived home.

Harry had sent her a note with Hedwig asking her to come back to the castle for lunch.

Hermione had her cloak that Draco had given her draped over the back of the table that was in the corner where most of the Elves ate when they didn't eat at the larger table in the dining room with them. It was something that was done at Spencer's, and Draco didn't want to force them to do anything different. Hermione kind of liked it when they did eat dinner in the dining room because it made the room seem fuller. It was really just something nice as well. The Elves were wonderful to talk to, and Hermione really didn't know any but Dobby that well. Rael was doing wonderful as her Elf, and she adored the little Elf but having four was a little overwhelming. Hermione's clothes that never looked better and she knew that Rael went shopping for her as there were new things in her closet that had not been there when she had asked Rael to empty her closet.

The talk with her parents had not gone over well in Hermione's mind. They were not that happy about her moving into a veritable castle with two men, one she was close to and one that she wasn't. Her parents relied on her to give them the news from the Wizarding World and didn't read the Prophet at all, so Hermione didn't have to worry about telling them that she had not only moved in with those two men she was married to them and soulmates to boot. They did well at accepting most things that came from Hermione's new world, but some things were hard to grasp and magic declaring that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were her perfect loves was going to be hard. The ring on her finger was warm against her skin as it always was. Hermione had spelled it to where Muggles could not see it at all. She would change that when she told her parents about everything.

Hermione hated lying to them, but she was a mostly grown-up woman who needed to make choices for herself.

"How were classes?" Harry asked as he pushed a plate across the table towards Hermione that had cut up fruits and veggies on it as well as two different dips. Hermione had seen the Elves cutting up the fruits and veg earlier that morning. They always had food like that in the fridge for snacks for anyone. Harry reached over and grabbed a strawberry as he turned back to the stove. Hermione could smell the soup that he was heating up as well as the buttered cooking bread from the grilled cheese. Harry's tastes were simple compared to Draco, but both would eat whichever person's turn it was to choose dinner. Since there were seven people, Libby had them each choose a night a week. There was a rotation inside of Spencer's house that was only at the mercy of the House Elves and every once and a while Spencer would ask for something and that Elf would get skipped, and their meal would be the next night but as Draco said Spencer rarely did.

"Tiring. I kind of regret taking the condenses courses for the rest of my time. Getting all of the extra things done is nice, but I'm tired of the time turning. That extra two hours in the morning is nice, and Newt is being really nice about it all. I actually got to go to the court with him yesterday and will be again today, but I have to stay focused."

"But you are enjoying it. And it can't be as bad as third year."

"No, it's not. I'm getting a lot of rest here actually. Rael makes sure that I sleep well with charms on my bed. She said that it's charms that Libby learned with Spencer to help him sleep after what he did to his father and all of that. It's nice to sleep and not have bad dreams at all. I wish that I would have known spells like that when I was in Hogwarts, especially, third year."

"Yes, Dobby had Libby put them on my bed before I started to sleep in it. It really is nice. There is also something Muggle in origination that makes my room smell of chamomile and lavender. It's nice. I think that Dobby called them essential oils. Libby is talking about making him take day classes on them to make sure that I am not a mess."

"They are used to running Spencer's life but you know it's kind of...I always heard growing up that raising a kid takes a village and I don't feel bad that Spencer was basically raised by House Elves, he's pretty nicely turned out given what he had happened to him the first twelve years of his life. I mean he could have easily gone the route of Riddle, and I understand that more and more."

"I think that Spencer is what kept Draco from being a Mini Lucius. He's sweeter than I ever thought that he could be. He's having the pitch put in as soon as the House Elves feel up to letting strangers onto the property. It's going to be full sized with a set of stands that are charmed to collapse down to where they are not in the way if we want to entertain and have a party out there."

"I think that he's trying his hardest to be the best person that he can be. I don't think he's trying too hard, I just think that he's going to be the romantic one of us and we should just live with it. Spencer seems pretty romantic as well. I think they would have been one of those lovesick people for Hotchner and for us if things had gone the way that they should have been. Though with sixteen years between Spencer and Hotchner, I have no clue how Magic thought they were going to meet and fall in love. I mean right now Hotchner is basically twice his age."

"But with everything that Spencer did go through, I think it's what put him on that path. I did a lot of looking into Hotchner with all of this. He's been an Auror for a long time and his time in taking over the Shadow Team has been good. He's loyal and calm. Right now he's on administrative leave until he can pass a mind healer's exam and David Rossi came back to lead the team in his absence. It was the only person that the ICW and the Head Auror agreed on. The team's a little shaky because they all feel bad about what happened and never knowing but he's been potioned for so long that no one that he's worked with since Hogwarts would have noticed it. She started to dose him at Hogwarts."

"I know that they kept the potion maker's potion from the results but what happened to him?"

"Every single thing that he's learned about potions has been stripped from his mind, and he's had his magic bound. He'll never be able to as much as trip a ward. He's not going to even register as a Squib. He reads as a Muggle, and he's being put into prison in the Muggle world and being charged in their courts with attempted murder and a string of other charges that will see him in jail for the rest of his life. He was too famous to go to Azkaban and risk someone getting him out. While I would love to see him get a Dementor treatment for the rest of his life without potions memories in his head, he won't feel what he should. He was tried in a closed session with eleven members of the Wizengamot as it was his choice. He thought that he would get a lenient sentence since he had given everything they wanted to them. Well while a Legilimens was going through his head, they found a bit of payment that was never mentioned that he got from various other customers who took normal love potions from him and other things."

"What?" Hermione reached down for a bite of food but found that the plate was empty. She frowned because the dips had been so good. She would have to ask Libby to keep them stocked in the fridge here. She had been surprised to see a fridge. While it didn't run like a Muggle one, it was set up like a Muggle one but had charms on it that kept it the same temperature without noise.

"He sometimes took payment in memories from customers, especially some of the ones that had no way to pay for some of the things that they wanted. With those memories taken out, there was an additional ten very dark people taken into custody. I read the short version, and I'm very glad that they are going to Azkaban. There was one that memory charmed a family member to forget what he did to her and raped her nearly every single night. Potions stopped her from getting pregnant, and he always erased all pain from her body. The guy was fucked up form day one and escaped being caught for giving potions and aide to Riddle. Those records were found. The regular people don't need to know what he did beside give love potions which are illegal."

"Just when I think that the Death Eaters were the worst out there. I know that the Carrows and Greyback were some of the worst, but I think that Riddle missed a few when he was recruiting."

"Look at the Muggle world." Harry turned off the stove with a wave of his hand, and the fires all died out before he grabbed two plates and slipped a sandwich on each. Hermione watched him as he ladled the soup out into the bowls and set one on each plate. Spoons were next. Napkins were already on the bar that Hermione was sitting at. Harry set her food down in front of her first before sitting down. Hermione watched him unfold his cloth napkin and slip it over his leg under the table before raising up his spoon. Hermione picked her up and saluted him with it. They tapped the spoons and Hermione dipped the edge of her's into the soup. It was too hot to eat, but she wanted to try it. She knew that Harry had spent most of the morning preparing the vegetables for it. It was a chunky tomato soup with multi-coloured pepper chunks in it. It tasted wonderful.

"We will always find new and inventive ways to fuck with our fellow people," Hermione said.

"And I'm going to catch them, and you are going to make sure that they stay where they belong."

"Newt does take some cases, he was Lucius's solicitor on record, but that doesn't mean that he's all bad. He does his job but does offer to lead things for the Wizengamot on occasion. Some of their on staff solicitors don't know what to do with criminal proceedings like yours was." Hermione dipped her spoon down into the soup and got enough into it that she could really try it. She blew on it for a few seconds before spilling the spoon between her lips. It was still too hot, and she danced in her seat as her tongue burned. SHe pulled the empty spoon clear and opened her mouth while tipping her head back. He exhaled, trying to cool the soup down. Hermione felt hands on her face, and then a cooling sensation came over her tongue and the food. She swallowed when it was cool enough and looked at Harry who was standing there beside her with a look of worry on his face. He was so handsome to her, and she hated that he was so lost. Hermione tried to turn her face away so that he wouldn't see the desire in her eyes for him but his hand on her chin stopped her. She let him look at her, his eyes darting down to her lips. Hermione licked her lips and swallowed, unsure what to do with that look on his face. Harry leaned down and brushed a kiss over her lips before he let his lips part between her. Hermione grabbed her spoon weight with one hand and buried the other in the skirt of her suit for the day.

Harry licked her lips, and she parted them, not knowing how far he wanted to take it but unwilling to deny him anything, even if it aroused her. She could slip into the bathroom at the office and rub herself off before working the afternoon away. Hermione kissed Harry back, matching his fervour with her own fervour as she tried to control herself. Harry stepped back after a few more minutes, his lips were red and wet, his eyes dark. He looked confused, but there was less confusion with Hermione and more like confusion with himself. He walked around the bar table and sat back down in his seat. He grabbed a new napkin and made a ritual of placing it on his lap just right.

"Harry?" Hermione asked after a few minutes of silence. Harry was staring at his soup and stirring it in its bowl.

"I wanted that you didn't...I'm messed up. I'm truly messed up, and I know that the healers that they have me talking with are helping me but I keep thinking that I have no right to be messed up like I am. Lord Hotchner was raped, every single time that he had sex with his wife he wouldn't have done that if he hadn't been potioned and that's rape. The one mind Healer that I talk to that I really like tells me that technically Hotchner is still a virgin because he didn't give his body willingly and that makes me think that it didn't happen to me, so I have no reason to be messed up. Then I think about doing more than what I was doing with you there, and I think that I'd rather be anywhere else."

"It's going to take time. You are getting better at your own pace. There is no perfect time and no perfect pace, it's different for everyone. If you were perfectly better already I would be worried about you. You will feel like it's right when it's right. I can't tell you when that is going to be, but the fact that you did more and just give me a peck on the lips tells a great deal about your head right now."

"Spencer told me that some of the problems are that you had years to get used to the thought that you loved me and I haven't had that, and I know that I'm supposed to feel more so pushing myself is making me freak out." Harry grabbed his grilled cheese and took a bite. Hermione saw that it wasn't just regular cheese inside of it, but it looked like two different kinds.

"Libby introduced me to spicy cheese. Draco brought it and his love of an American Muggle soda pop as well. It's called Dr Pepper. Do you want to try it?" Harry pulled his wand after setting down the half of his sandwich and muttered the spell. Two bottles of soda appeared in front of them. Hermione reached out and watched as Harry popped the lid on his before taking a sip. He grinned at her. Hermione did the same and took a sip. It wasn't the worst thing in the world. "Pepper jack is the name of the cheese. I had Libby get a pound of it for the house. The other half of cheese on mine is Muenster. I did swiss and that gouda that you like on yours."

"It's good," Hermione said as she picked up her half of a sandwich and took a second bite. Her soup was cool enough to eat. She knew that this was a date. They had discussed it that morning, finding time to do things as a threesome but as twosomes as well. Even if it was just eating lunch together. They were important in all forms of their relationship. Hermione kind of liked the attention that Draco gave her when they were alone. Draco had become very touchy after sex the night before. Draco had dropped kisses to Hermione's neck as they passed in the kitchen that morning. Draco had even pressed a very chaste one to Harry's cheek. Harry had surprised them all with turning and pressing one to Draco's cheek as well.

"Libby left a lot of recipes for me to try out when I want to. She's happy that I like to cook a little as she calls it therapeutic. She told me that she cooked a lot after Spencer killed his father. She had a lot of emotions it was the best way for her to get them out. There was a lot of food going to Muggle homeless shelters she said."

"That's why I don't' want to take cooking for us from her if she wants to do it. I've told her that if it's too much, she can tell us and if it's just for a night, we can get takeout, but if it's longer, we can figure something out. I mean we won't starve."

"I really want to see Draco try pot noodle. I got good at figuring out how to do it with magic. Getting the water right and everything. I'm sure that Spencer's not had him try that."

"Don't be so sure. Spencer is in love with learning everything. He reads books, and I saw some Japanese Manga in his library. He's probably tried it."

"Master Spencer no allowed to bring that into the home, neither are you," Libby said after she appeared in the middle of the kitchen with a glare. A plate of food appeared seconds later. "Miss Hermione take those to work, please. The plate will shrink down if you put your magic into it and resize when you get it there. Mister Boyles like my Turtles and asked Draco for some but I not feel like making them until now. I had a plate for here."

Libby disappeared and a second plate appeared next to the one that was wrapped for travel. Harry used his wand to float them each one. Before he could grab a napkin and set them on it, two plates appeared in front of them. Harry grinned lowered the food down to it. There was silence as they finished off their food. The soup was really good, and Hermione hoped that there was some left that she could take for her lunch the next day. Harry grabbed his turtle and took a bite. The look of happiness on his face had Hermione grabbing hers to take a bite. It was good. The crust of the turtle was good, and the chocolate was rich but helped balance the slight salt in the crust. It was perfection in her mouth, and she couldn't help but moan a little.

"Thank you for giving me time. It's hard to slot you out of best friend and into a romantic best friend. There has always been an energy between Draco, and I and it's easy to give into it. Not that I'm going to just jump into his bed. I'm glad you had a good time last night. I felt it, sort of while I was asleep. It felt good, feeling you two so happy. Draco looked a lot more settled this morning and less like a skittish kitten. He deserves happiness, even if I can't give him what he needs I don't' want the two fo you to not do what you want because of me."

"I know Harry, and I told him that you knew that I was going in there and why. He was glad about that as he refused to hide what we were doing. I talked to him about maybe having you watch once. When you are ready for that. The ability to watch and not have the pressure to do anything. I think it could be good for you. To see something nice and loving and not have whatever you have in your head of what a first time with Ginny would have been like in your memories coming out of this a lot later."

"I have tomorrow off as the trainers are doing something with the years above us that is going to require all of them. I'm thinking of spending it out and about. Draco gave me that ring that was his father's that helps to glamour the wearer. It's not a true one, but it changes the face just enough that I look kind of like me but nothing like me at the same time. I think that being out and about will help me calm down."

"Good. I think that you do need it. Draco and I can entertain ourselves with reading or something if you want to spend the evening out as well."

"I don't know." Harry shrugged, and Hermione knew that he was too in his head. There was no hope for it except letting him think about something else.

"So how do you feel about hiding these little delights from Draco?" Hermione asked before she took another bite of the dessert that Libby had given them. Harry smiled at her.

"I don't know. Libby really likes Draco so she would just give him more and then he wouldn't share with us, and that's less for us." Harry took another bite of his and closed his eyes as he started to chew. He was coming out of his shell a little more each day, and that was all that Hermione cared about. They could be themselves for the first time in their lives. Harry didn't have to be anything than what he was, which at the moment was a little broken but he could be fixed. Hermione was going to make sure of it.

_October 15, 2000_

Harry found a nice little bookshop that was on the edge of a small area of Magical London. It had a nice sitting area in it that allowed customers to sit down and read as well as make a cup of tea. He had a cup sitting beside him. There was a stack of books beside him that he wanted to buy, but first, he wanted to sit down for awhile. Breakfast had been good. Draco and Hermione had read the morning papers that were delivered by owl and floo that morning. Draco read every single major paper for the Magical world in the morning. Harry was catching up still on things that he missed in training and spent time reading that morning. Hermione had, in the beginning, read everything of his but with her schooling getting tougher and her hours getting longer, there wasn't as much time for that.

The domesticity of them reading in the morning was nice tough. The dining room table covered in papers and Harry's books. The Elves didn't sit and eat breakfast with them. Instead, they ate whenever they got up from a casserole that Libby made for them at Spencer's. They had their own routine and had added Dobby into it easily.

Dobby was happy to be serving his Harry Potter again, and it made Draco laugh every time he was called that. Draco had even commented that he felt like Dobby felt he had more of a claim on Harry than Draco or Hermione did. Harry had laughed because Draco's eyes had been full of humour when he said it. Draco liked playing with him it seemed. It was nice because it was something that no one had ever really done before. The Twins were the only ones who ever tried to make Harry laugh and slotting Draco into being the one to do that was hard.

"You need more tea?" the little House Elf who cleaned in the shop asked. She had not given her name, and Harry hadn't asked because usually, it meant that the Elf didn't care to share if they worked in a place and didn't have a name tag on.

"Yes, please. Just one sugar this time."

"Oh, was two too much? I'm sorry. I'll-" the Elf reached out for his cup, but Harry picked it up with a smile.

"No, it's perfectly fine but I've had a good bit of sweets already today, and I'm cutting myself down. Your cup of tea was perfect."

"Oh, okay, good." The Elf looked at Harry like she didn't understand him. Harry watched her head back into the small work area and closed his eyes for a few seconds. He knew that he was hiding form Draco and Hermione, but he wasn't sure why he was doing it. The affection that was between them after sex was very evident. Harry wasn't upset about it or even jealous, not that way. He wanted it for himself. He wanted to be able to touch and to have it feel good and not feel like a violation. He had talked to three different mind healers about it, and all of them said the same thing. That he needed to just let his mind heal on its own and to talk. It was an hour later that Harry finished off his last cup of tea and paid for his books. He shrunk them before he left the shop and pocketed them.

It was still only nine thirty in the morning. He had promised to meet Luna at ten at her shop. She had a test kitchen as she called it and they were going to spend the day in it. Harry liked cooking when it wasn't for his aunt and uncle, especially with his aunt screaming at him like a harpy. Cooking lunch for Hermione the day before had reminded him of how he liked to cook. Libby had helped him gather what he needed, but that was it. The kitchen had been well stocked by Draco and Harry didn't even want to know how much money he spent on that for Libby to use it to cook when she wanted to cook there instead of at Spencer's. It was all top notch stuff, and Harry could tell that Libby had picked it all.

The purchase price of the castle was huge, but Draco had been unwilling to have Harry give him any money on it. Instead, Draco had just told him that everything else that was being furnished could come from him. Harry had agreed to that. The Elves were having fun planning to turn the rooms into guest rooms for visitors. Teddy's room was finished and ready for Teddy to come over and stay when Harry was ready for it. Harry hoped that the next weekend would be good. He wasn't ready for Teddy that weekend. Harry had written to Andromeda already, and she had written back that she was glad that Harry was doing well.

Teddy had sent his own letter which Harry made no sense of but it was hanging on the wall in his room because Teddy had drawn a picture on it as well. Harry watched as people wandered the streets ad he walked at a slow pace to Luna's shop.

Everyone who was out and about was in a hurry somewhere, and Harry knew that ones he was done with training this would be his life. He was looking forward to it. He wanted the bustle of busy life to help him get settled into an actual life. He was looking forward to doing that with Hermione and Draco. Hermione was going to become a good solicitor and take the world by storm. Harry was happy with his life going into the Auror corps. His aim was Head Auror and no higher. He wanted to be the push for good inside of the Ministry, but he didn't want to be a big head inside.

Harry had not asked Draco what he was going to schooling for other than it had to do with maths. Harry vowed to ask when they had their time alone together which was for that Sunday. Harry and Hermione had an evening alone on Saturday and Harry was looking forward to it.

"Harry?" Luna asked. Harry shook his mind free of his thoughts and saw that Luna was standing beside him on the sidewalk on the other side of the road from her shop. SHe had two cups of to go coffee in her hand and handed one with an H on top to Harry. Harry took a sip of the coffee and found that it was theatre and black but spiced. It was nice.

"Hey, Luna. Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts. Am I late?"

"No, you are early just one of my customers saw you staring at the place and was worried."

"Just lost in my head. So I'm ready to learn how to cook that dish that your mom taught you how to make. I want to make it for Draco and Hermione for dinner tonight."

"Then let's go, but we will have to make the pasta here. But that will be easy to do, and we will do it first so that it can dry. Then we can work on the sauce. I think you will really like it and I am fairly certain that Hermione will love it. I am unsure on Draco, but he likes to try new things. He does when he comes in here for lunch on the days that the Goblins do a big meal. He doesn't like Goblin food much." Luna made a weird face as she said it.

"Well, when I was learning about them in Auror training because we have to know how not to piss them off, I can understand that." Harry smiled at her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder before they started off to enter her shop. Harry was happy for a day with his friends. He had not asked what Neville would be doing that day, so he wondered if he was going to pop in and out at all.

Six hours later, Harry was leaving Luna's shop with several shrunk packages of food. He had the pasta that had taken a while to make, but as he had eaten it with lunch, he agreed that it was better than store-bought versions. Harry had wondered if Libby made her pasta from scratch but didn't want to ask and offend her. SHe made the food, and he wanted her to keep making the food. There was also a casserole for breakfast the next morning and dessert for that night, all made by Harry with Luna helping him. The casserole had been something that Luna had made for the shop that could be sold by the slice to those who didn't want a sweet breakfast.

Harry walked to a lovely shop that Luna told him about that would have all of the produce that he wanted for dinner and all of it fresh. Harry walked the aisles to find what he wanted. He had never shopped like before because even though he cooked, his aunt never let him do the shopping because she didn't want people to see how much of a freak he was. Harry had to wonder if that was all that it was. Petunia Dursley had been worried about her reputation and how everything looked, but she never cared to dress him in good clothes. He wasn't allowed outside to go to school, and Harry knew that if more people had seen him, someone would have pointed out that something was right inside that house. The three Dursley's were always turned out, perfect outfits and perfect everything and then there was Harry. It made Harry question again what his aunt had told everyone.

After getting everything that he needed to make dinner, Harry found the apparition point for where he was. He landed in the foyer of the castle and looked around, listening. There was no sound at all. Harry smiled as he figured that he was alone, other than the Elves. It was nice to be alone for the cooking.

Harry took his time as he pulled all of his things from his pockets and enlarged them with wandless spells. It was nice to practice, and Harry was trying to get better at wandless magic as well as silent. Spencer did it like he did breathing and Harry was really jealous of that. Spencer was a powerhouse of power but then so was Harry but Spencer pushed himself to do the best that he could while Harry had just coasted. Harry regretted that more than he ever thought that he would. It wasn't easy to go back and learn things that he should have in school while learning about the loads of new things that he had to learn to be an Auror.

"Master Harry need anything?" Rael asked Harry from behind Harry as he stood and looked at his packages that he had brought home with him. Harry turned to look at Hermione's Elf. She was dressed in a little skirt and dress shirt outfit. She looked really adorable.

"No. I have everything that I need."

"Good. We are all going out to bowl. Dobby has never been before, and it's kind of a ritual that we used to do in the Reid household. Master Spence always got take out and took care of himself, and we went out and had fun. Sometimes we go ice skating when it's colder. One time we went to a carnival in France. Xibby and Jibby are already over at Master Spence's house, but I was finishing up putting new sheets on Miss Hermione's bed."

"Well go and have fun. I'm sure that the three of us can fend for ourselves."

"Libby said you be cooking dinner, so we figured it was a good night for it but if you need someone just call out. We come back as soon as finish our turn." Rael gave Harry a little bow before she popped away. Harry pushed his thoughts from his mind about following along to see a large group of House Elves bowling. He would have to tell Draco and Hermione about it. Harry grabbed his bag of books and walked out of the kitchen and found the library. It was just outside the master wing of the castle. Harry had been inside of it once before but hadn't gone back. He touched the door that was the main entrance to the wing, and the door opened. He really liked that part of it. Most of the doors in the castle opened with a touch from Harry, Hermione, or Draco. The only ones that didn't were the ones that were to the personal rooms. Harry's bedroom door wouldn't open with a touch from anyone but him, and the same was for Draco's and Hermione's doors. Harry felt that blush creep up his face at the thought of why Draco had the Goblins ward and charm all of the doors like that. It was for ease of sex and Harry knew it.

Images flashed through Harry's mind of the three of them in various states of undress making their way through the castle to get to a bed, any bed. Having to not have to actually deal with door handles was nice. Harry touched his way to the master bedroom of the master wing. There were tables with decorations all over, and he couldn't help just brushing his fingers over them. He loved the decorations, it was a blend of things that he liked as well as Hermione and Draco. The fact that Draco had all of them before they had moved in spoke of how much Draco had watched them over the years. All three of them had been preoccupied with each other. It made sense the three of them, and it felt right, even before Harry had seen their names in the book or even in the journal of Lucius, it had just felt too damned right.

Harry knew that he needed to get the sauce for dinner started if he didn't want to eat too late but he had to look at the room while he was alone. The main bedroom had little in it besides the bed, there was a long walk in closet that took up one side of the room that would hold all of their clothes in it when it was time, by contrast, there were no closets in the other three bedrooms. It made Harry ache a little because he wanted to sleep in there, he wanted them to be where they wouldn't mind being a true triad and be together all of the time, but they weren't there yet. He knew that they would get there, none of them was of the mindset to let things fail when they could make sure that they don't.

The bedroom was made up of deep reds and dark greens, it was very nice with the lightness of the stones that were used to make the room. The room was utterly perfect in all the ways that counted and Harry kind of resented Draco for that. The man was selfless, and Harry hated that feeling that he was causing Draco pain.

Pushing the thoughts from his head, Harry made himself leave the bedroom and the wing as a whole and walked to the kitchen. He found that everything was as he had left it, the food had charms on it to keep it fresh despite it not being in a cooling cabinet or anything like that. Harry sorted everything into the cabinet that needed to be in there and started to chop up the herbs that he had bought for the sauce. Libby only used fresh herbs for everything so there was none of the jarred ones that he was used to. Spices were a mixture of things that Harry was used to for Muggle cooking, and some strange versions of what he was used to that were just for Wizarding use. Garlic had been one of the first things that he had found interesting. It was always in the fresh form however there were spells to dice it quickly or even turn it into garlic powder for the quicker infusion into a sauce. There were spells like it for onion as well.

Harry had just added the last of the spices into the sauce that was still very much in a raw form when he heard the sound of dress shoes on the stone of the floor. That meant Draco as Hermione had been in heels when she left for the day. Harry looked at the clock that in the kitchen and smiled. It was five thirty. Draco was a little early. Harry grabbed the bottle of wine that he had opened up to let it breathe a little before he drank some while cooking. He summoned a second glass and had the wine poured into them for both of them before Draco entered the kitchen.

"Something smells really good," Draco said as he started to work his tie off. Harry watched him strip it off followed by his suit jacket. He unbuttoned the top two buttons on his dress shirt before he looked up at Harry finally with a smile on his face. "I was expecting Libby."

"I'm cooking dinner. The Elves, all of them, went bowling."

"Friday night take out is a night for Spencer is a fun night for all of the Elves, I'm glad that they invited Dobby along. He'll have fun."

"Yes, Dobby told me about it, and I thought it would be a good night for cooking. I like it and want to do it all the time. Even if I work you and Hermione can get take out."

"That sounds good to me," Draco said as he finally started to walk toward Harry. Harry took a sip of his wine as he held out the second glass to Draco. Draco took it with a brush of his fingers over Harry's. He smiled after taking a sip. "Good year and vintage."

"I wouldn't know. I told Dobby what I was making, and he picked the wine. He even got a dessert wine to go with what I made to go with it and not peeking!" Harry called out as Draco moved to open the fridge. Draco turned back around to look at Harry with a fond smile on his face. Harry set down his glass and held his hand out to Draco. Draco took it and settled his wine down on the counter as well just before Harry tugged him forward. Draco gasped as Harry settled both of his hands on Draco's hips. "Good evening."

"Good evening, Harry," Draco said sounding very confused.

Harry pressed a kiss to Draco's cheek and then wrapped his arms around Draco's body, settling them around his ribs and pulling him into a hug. Draco wrapped his arms around Harry's shoulders and seemed to just melt into the hug. It felt too damned good to just hold and be held by anyone. Harry hadn't liked it with Ginny, and that spoke loads to how he was feeling in that relationship. Fake emotions were not as good as the real ones.

Draco seemed like he didn't want to let Harry go at all and fought Harry pulling out of the hug. Harry pressed another kiss to Draco's cheek before he brushed one across Draco's lips.

"Harry?" Draco asked his voice sounding very worried.

"I've only had a single sip of wine, but I want to see how this feels," Harry said. He didn't pull back at all and instead just let his breath waft over Draco's lips. Draco closed the distance between them and kissed Harry. It felt so much better than the ones that they had before. It felt like it was right and something that Harry didn't want to end. Draco's hands started to move, one sliding up to grip the back of Harry's neck and the other sliding down to settle on Harry's hip, it didn't go lower but just settled there, holding Harry right where Draco wanted him.

Harry angled his head a little and slipped his tongue out to trace the seam of Draco's lips. Draco gasped but parted his lips. Harry turned them to where Draco had his back to the counter that was opposite where the hob was, and he trailed his hands down to Draco's hips again. The counter was the perfect height for Draco to sit on and not be in Harry's way while he finished cutting up the vegetables for the sauce. Harry tasted Draco for the first time, and it was good. There was something sweet meaning that Draco had eaten something just a little while before and the taste of the wine was there on his tongue. There was something else that Harry had to call the taste of Draco himself. Harry didn't want to go too far, he wasn't ready for that but being out with Luna that day had helped him settle down and go with what felt right. This felt so right.

"You are good at that," Draco whispered as Harry pulled out of the kiss. Draco pushed himself up to sit on the counter, moving the cutting board a little further down the counter. Harry grabbed the both of their glasses of wine and handed Draco his.

"Thank you. I liked it. I liked it a lot more than I thought that I would. So you sit right there and don't move." Harry gave Draco a mock glare. The other man raised his hands up and gave Harry an innocent look. It was fun, and it made Harry smile.

"So what did you do today? You were a little secretive this morning."

"I went to Luna's shop, and she helped to teach me how to make pasta by hand and how to make what I am cooking for dinner. It was a really nice day. I also found some more books and I put them in the library." Harry started to chop the green, red, and orange peppers that he got from the market store.

"I'm glad it was a good day for you. I had meetings inside of the bank all day. It was a good day but long with listening to Goblins try not and start fights with stupid Wizards who don't realise how stupid they are. It was to watch Spitehex threaten on Wizard with a castration when he blamed the Goblins for him losing money when he was the one that demanded that his money be shifted to a different stock. They had the entire transcript read back to him from start to finish while under a silencing charm. They told him that the stock was no projected to do well and still, he demanded that he knew better than them. They told him that he would have to transfer all of his stock and things to a different company as the bank refused to do that kind of work for him anymore. It was glorious. He was escorted from the bank and told to come back when he found a wizard or Witch who would manage his account."

"You'll do well at your job then. So what exactly are you learning to do from them?"

"It's basically estate management. I've bounced around from department to department inside of the bank and a few other Wizarding firms learning everything I can. When I set up my practice, I can manage my own plus others as I see fit. Technically running my own is the only job that I need but I wouldn't mind taking on a few others. That's why I am getting an office through Gringotts. They would funnel me a few other accounts that would do well under my hand. The Goblins like me and they like it when Wizards takes control of their own estates, but they understand some not wanting to because of their jobs or just not having the head for it. There are Goblins who don't want a thing to do with banking."

"So you'll manage your estate, and Spencer's I assume."

"Spencer has the head for numbers, but he would rather not run his estate. I've had control of it before I even started school with the Goblins. He was glad to be rid of it. The Goblins are using it to teach me." Harry nodded his head. He could see that. Spencer liked to learn and to do experiments and other such things. Keeping his finger on the banking and finance world was not something that Harry could see him liking to do.

"So what about the Potter Estate?" Harry asked.

"What about it?"

"I have no head for numbers and other such things. My account manager at the bank manages it, but he has mentioned that he has a lot of other accounts. It started about the time that Spencer figured out that you were my mate. I can see them trying to push my account onto someone else."

"The Goblins like money and they like making it, but yes, they would prefer that Estates that would be considered joint were run by the same person, and as I run mine, they would like me to take over yours, whenever you are ready."

Harry added the peppers to the sauce and watched as the spoon that was stirring it sped up to mix the peppers all in. Harry really liked that part of cooking with magic, not having to stir things. Draco had purchased a wonderful set of utensils that had the best charms on them. Technically the knives would cut up his veg for him, but he liked that part of it. The hob was regulated to cook on its own with no need of anything from him unless the temperature needed to be lowered to simmer things, which the sauce was almost to that point. He just needed to add the onions first.

"What are those?" Draco asked as Harry pulled out green onions from the cabinet.

"Green onions. I'll use them for the sauce and leave some of the stems to garnish on the top of the dish when I am done." Harry started to pull out the ones that he wanted from the bundle before dropping the rest back into the drawer inside of the cabinet. He laid the four that he wanted out and start to cut them. "The smell is not nearly as strong, and they add just as much flavour, but it's a little different."

"I remember watching Libby cut onions once. She hated doing it without casting the spells to stop her eyes from watering. It was interesting the one time that she couldn't do it because of an experiment that Spencer was doing at the kitchen table. I swear she was uttering curses before she was done. She's like you and likes to chop and cut things on her own."

"It's calming to me and after I learned exactly how to cut potion ingredients even it wasn't that bad. I liked potions when I understood exactly what I was doing."

"Coming from a Muggle family that hated magic, I can see where you wouldn't have known anything about learning that kind of thing. I never took Muggle-borns for being that removed from it all until I realised that it wasn't arrogance that they were better that was making them adhere to our traditions. There used to be books that were sent to Muggle-borns and Half-bloods whose Magical parent had died that helped teach them about how to do essays and prepare them for things like potions. I learned that the Ministry stopped sending them out to save money, yet they never figured out another way to teach them what they needed and didn't make sure that the school knew that. I've talked to Headmistress McGonagall about doing things a little different and spending the first week at Hogwarts learning all of those things. Even Half-bloods and Pure-bloods could do with the lessons to make sure that everyone is coming in with the same knowledge."

"It's a good idea. That would be really good."

"I also talked to her about teaching the simple charms that even before Hogwarts I knew, household charms and the like that I picked up from Mom doing things around the house. Make cleaning up after the kids easier if they take control of their own space and pride in it. Slytherin doesn't have that much issue because the Hat has not put a single Muggle-born into the House in nearly fifty years because Dumbledore didn't make sure that they were safe and after a first year killed themselves, the Hat took it upon himself to protect them."

"I hadn't ever heard that."

"My House was very proud, but before Riddle, it was not like that. Salazar Slytherin may have disliked Muggle-borns, but he didn't see that they needed to be rejected wholesale from the Wizarding World. He understood what they were and what I came to understand they were. He disliked the ones that came into our world that didn't try and learn our ways. I would not expect to move to China or even the Americas without learning their way of doing things, there is no reason to expect Muggle-borns not to learn our ways as well. Yes, things have blended but we hold our traditions close, and we love them."

"I never was taught any of it, and even at school, there is no education on how even names and such things are done. I was dropped into a world I knew nothing about and taught nothing more of."

"Which I took as you trying to Lord yourself over us. I thought that you knew and decided to not do it. There is a big difference."

"Hello?" Hermione called out before the sound of her walking in bare feet sounded. Harry looked over to the doorway to see that she was indeed barefoot. She had taken off her stockings and had removed her suit jacket before even entering the room. She had worn pants that day as the weather was too wet for a skirt.

"there you two are. Oh, Harry, this smells wonderful."

Hermione stepped up to Draco and pushed up to her tiptoes for a kiss, and after Draco had given it, she turned and looked at Harry. Harry dropped his knife and uttered the spell to remove the onion smell and juice from his hands. He cupped the back of Hermione's head and drew her in for a welcome kiss that stayed tamer than his with Draco had been. Hermione hummed into the kiss, and when she pulled back, Draco handed her a glass of wine. Harry saw that Draco had summoned the third glass from where Harry had set it down earlier.

"Dinner is going to be really good," Draco said with a grin on his face.

"I'm really hungry. I worked through lunch at school and didn't eat a lot. Rael brought me snacks, but I was busy in court most of the day." Hermione looked around before deciding to move to the other side of the counter and pulled up a stool to sit there. Draco stayed where he was, and Harry went back to preparing dinner.

"Good because I have a lot of pasta and a lot of sauce."

"Spencer wants to do a day with just me and him tomorrow. I thought that maybe you two would like to spend the day together here alone. He's not doing as well as I would hope with everything with Hotchner. I hope that a day with me will help him get his emotions out."

"That's good," Harry said. He made sure to smile at Draco to let him know that he was happy with that. "He needs you."

"Yes he does," Hermione said.

"However Sunday is going to be just the three of us. I want to watch those movies that you two have been trying to get me to watch. I think that you said something about popcorn and lazing about, Hermione?" Draco asked.

"Yes. It'll be fun."

Harry listened as Hermione and Draco talked about movie traditions of Muggles whether they were staying home and watching them or going out to a theatre, which Draco wanted to do as soon as possible, meaning when a movie that the three of them wanted to see was in theatres. It was really nice to just spend time together and just be. To be Draco, to be Hermione, and to just be Harry. No pressure to do anything but exist. This was what Harry was looking forward to for the rest of his life. This was what Hermione and Draco were giving him, and it was wonderful.


	10. Chapter 9

# Chapter 9

_October 16, 2000_

Draco entered Spencer's study to find him leaning back in the chair with a glass of Firewhisky in his hand. They had gone their separate ways after dinner, Draco to handle something that the Goblins contacted him about when it came to his own estate that needed taken care of as soon as possible, and Spencer said that he was going to go and read. However, Spencer had not been found in any of the three libraries in the Manor.

After checking the main one and the Reid family history library, Draco had gone to Spencer's personal library that was small but tucked away in a room off of his bedroom. When Spencer hadn't been there, Draco started to worry. He knew from the wards that Spencer was still in the house, but the wards were very attuned to Spencer and wouldn't tell Draco where he was. Which was how Draco came to play a game of hide and seek with someone who didn't know that they were playing it.

Spencer had been off all day, and Draco hadn't been able to pin down what was wrong. Spencer was strong, but that strength was borne from the fact that he had no other option. Rock bottom had hit him a long time ago, and he had picked himself up and climbed the mountain again before floating himself even higher.

Draco forgot sometimes that he was so young. That he wasn't that much younger than Draco even if he seemed older. Draco watched as Spencer emptied the glass by drinking it down in one go before filling it again. The bottle didn't look too empty but Draco had been with the Goblins for an hour with his head stuck in the floo in the office that he had been given in the room. Draco hated that it seemed that Spencer had gone from a little off to morose as fuck in the time that Draco had been elsewhere.

Walking up behind Spencer, Draco grabbed the bottle and tipped it up to take a drink. He nearly coughed because he had not paid that close of attention to the bottle. There was Firewhiskey and then there was that Firewhiskey. Draco coughed after he swallowed and settled in on the corner of the desk that was the largest thing in Spencer's study. There was a notebook spread out in front of him. Draco turned it around to where he could read. The small amount of Firewhiskey that he had drank was already affecting him. Magic affected different people different ways and someone like Spencer would have to chug an entire bottle of regular Firewhiskey to get an effect from it. His magic would burn the alcohol off quickly and it would be nothing. however after dealing with a wizard who had been affected so Ogden had made one that was imbued to not so much suppress the ability for magic to burn the alcohol off but to make it so that magic couldn't burn off the alcohol.

Draco didn't even know that Spencer had bought some.

There were words wrote in the notebook and Draco had to concentrate to read them. Suicide risk and never marry again were written over and over all over the page, and Draco could tell from the writing that Spencer had started to write them before he started to drink but had kept on after he drank more and more. Draco snagged a glass from the tray that was on the wall behind Spencer. He tipped in a single finger of the drink into his own glass and added about three fingers to Spencer's.

"Why are you in here?"

"because the Elves have warded this room to where I can't fuck it up that much when I drink."

"And how often are you drinking?" Draco tried not to let his voice waver, but he was scared of that answer. He was scared of the fact that Spencer was hurting and wasn't coming to him. He never wanted that. Spencer could always come to him.

"This would be the second time since I have turned seventeen."

"That weekend after you went to the book the first time, you didn't respond to me, and you said that you were stuck in a book all weekend long."

"I lied. I drank myself stupid and trashed my bedroom. I didn't like the way I felt after but right now, even that feeling is better than what else I am feeling."

"And what are you feeling?" Draco asked. He turned a little to push Spencer's chair out, while it wasn't on wheels there were charms that made one have to be deliberate in making it move for it to actually move. Spencer just looked up at Draco, moving his glass to the hand that was closest to the desk. Draco slipped down to sit in Spencer's lap. There was nothing sexual about it but more that Draco knew that Spencer wouldn't leave the room and there was nothing but the desk chair in there. This was Spencer's place to be alone.

Draco felt the wards on the room change and he watched as Elves popped in and out, removing things that Spencer cared around. The papers and things that were left had to be not important because Tibby was the last to appear. He settled two vials on a shelf on the side of the room. Draco knew that they were hangover potions in unbreakable charmed vials. Draco nodded. The wards on the room became strong and Draco felt for a few seconds that he couldn't breathe.

"I feel like-" Spencer stopped and drained his glass of whiskey. Draco watched as he waved his hand and the bottle tipped up to fill his glass with as much as Draco had put into it. Spencer could still do fine motor function with spells, so it wasn't that bad, but it was going to get worse because Draco had a feeling that Spencer was going to drink so much that he forgot everything.

"Let it out."

"Oh, fuck you Draco." Spencer stood up, shoving Draco down to the floor. He slipped around the desk with a distinct list to the left and Draco only watched from under the desk as Spencer left his sight. Draco stayed down because he wasn't sure where the anger was coming from. He looked at the bottle and thought about dumping it. He wasn't sure what emotion that would provoke in Spencer. Instead, Draco drank what was in his glass and laughed as he realised the glasses were spelled to not spill.

"What's wrong with you?" Draco demanded as he finally stood up. He set his glass down on the desk and looked at Spencer who was staring outside.

"I'm sorry. I was out of line."

"No, no. You felt emotion there and expressed it. I want to see more of that. You show me more of that."

"Go away, Draco." Spencer sounded like he was defeated when he said that and Draco knew then what was wrong. It was more than just what had happened to Hotchner. Spencer was taking Hotchner's choice that at the moment he could never see himself marrying someone else again personal. Hotchner had no clue that he had a soulmate out there. He had no clue what was waiting on him. If Draco thought that it would go well, he would march to the Hotchner manor and tell him that he had someone that he needed to get better for but it would damage him so much. Harry was still used to change and his life being in turmoil but Hotchner wasn't. Before all of this he had a stable life with a woman that he thought loved him. Instead, Hotchner came out of what he felt like a dream and found that every single little thing in his life other than his job was a lie. He was now a single father who had no clue what to do to even start it make sense of his life.

"You can't take anything that was said during the trial as truth. Right now Hotchner is lost in a sea of fog, and he doesn't understand what is waiting for him when he comes out of it. You have to hold on to that, Spencer."

"The Record Keeper didn't tell him that he didn't have a soulmate. The Record Keeper told him that his soulmate denied him the right to know who his mate was. I didn't expect him to go there that day after everything. I went to tell the Record Keeper that he wasn't in a place where he needed to know about it and to lie or do whatever he could to make sure that Hotchner wasn't hurt by the fact that I didn't want because I want him, Draco. I want him so bad and it's painful that I can't have him. I have this hole in my heart that will never go away." Spencer turned around and Draco gasped as he took in the fact that his eyes looked dead. "He's not going to forgive me what I have done to him."

"We can explain it."

"Promise me, Draco!" Spencer demanded.

Draco didn't know what happened but the next thing that he knew he heard the breaking of glass and then he was being shoved into a wall. Spencer was right there. Draco felt hands holding onto his shirt, holding him into the wall. Magic was making Spencer's skin shine with darkness. He looked like a Muggle Demon with his eyes glowing from his magic.

"Promise me that you will never talk to Aaron Hotchner about his soulmate. Swear it on your life, and your magic or I will rip every fucking memory about it out of your head!" Spencer's magic flared, and Draco felt the pull on his own magic. He kind of hated Spencer for making him make that choice, but he knew that Spencer wasn't in total control of himself.

"I Draco Lucian Malfoy swear on my magic that I will never talk to Aaron Hotchner about his soulmate in any form of communication." Draco felt his magic flare and it was only then that Spencer's started to retreat. Spencer slumped down and Draco felt them both slide slowly to the floor. He tried to slow their decent but his magic wasn't acting right at all. Spencer curled into Draco when they were sitting on the floor and Draco could only reach out and pull him closer. Draco cursed himself for not realizing how much all of it had been affecting Spencer.

"Xibby," Draco called out.

The House Elf in question popped into the room silently.

"Please tell Harry and Hermione that I am staying the night here and will return in the morning sometime. I don't want to leave Spencer alone."

Xibby nodded and left the room, allowing Draco to see the damage that was behind where the Elf had been. Everything in the room was in pieces and some things were even burned. Nothing was where it had been. The papers on the desk were all on the floor. Items that had been on shelves were lying on the floor as well or on their sides. The books that had been on the shelves were on the floor, many singed. It was hard to take that Spencer had lost control like that. Spencer was always you put together and not even Sean Hotchner had been able to evoke emotions like that.

Draco blinked as the room started to go fuzzy and he knew that he was crying but he didn't care. magic breaks Draco's heart on a good day with the good things that it could do but this was the end of it. Draco wanted to hate magic for what it had done to Spencer. Draco was there with not just one mate but two who had done stupid thing

* * *

Harry settled in on the couch with his glass of wine as Hermione sound a station on the Wizarding Wireless to listen to. They were in one of the larger living rooms in the castle. There were on coffee tables in front of the collection of couches that were in the room but instead the room was opened with black hardwood floors. Harry watched as Hermione swayed side to side as the soft jazz music filled the room. Hermione could feel his eyes on her, and it made her feel really good. She had noticed him looking at her more over the course of the day.

When Hermione held her hand out after turning around to face Harry, he stood up to meet her in the middle of the cleared area between the couches. Harry tucked her body close and started to slow dance with her. It should have reminded Hermione of the dancing at the Yule Ball, but the memory was faded as a lot of the points of that year were that were not Harry for his life in a tournament that he should never have been in. This night was wonderful to Hermione, feeling Harry as close to her as he could get.

"You look beautiful," Harry said.

"Thank you. Rael helped me find something nice to wear for the date tonight." Hermione laid her head on Harry's shoulder and let him guide her back and forth and around in a tight circle in the middle of the room. Harry seemed liked this a lot as well. Hermione wondered what Draco would do if Harry asked him about dancing like this. Hermione could feel her magic expanding and enveloping Harry while she felt his doing the exact same. It was really nice, and Hermione didn't want to stop.

Their date had happened on the deck above the ballroom, while it was too cold for it really, charms and spells had made the area warm enough for them. Libby and Dobby had served them their food and drink and decorated the area. Harry didn't want to go out and do a public date with either one of them, and Hermione understood that. The Wizarding population as a whole didn't know when to keep their noses to themselves. While Hermione was sure that it would at some point need to happen to show the public that he was okay with his soulmates, Hermione didn't figure that it would be anytime soon. At the moment though they were his and he was theirs, and no one else needed to be added to their relationship.

They danced like that for a while, Hermione wasn't sure how many songs changed on the Wireless. Her magic swelled after a while, and Harry pulled his head back to look at Hermione. She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him. It felt natural as he closed his eyes and leaned in to kiss her. Hermione submitted to the kiss, letting Harry guide and direct it as it went from simple to heated with the tangling of their tongues. Harry groaned into the kiss and dropped his hands from Hermione's back to her hips. Harry startled when she thrust into him, and he felt his erection press into her body. It felt right, and it felt good.

Harry grabbed Hermione's waist even harder and pulled her with him as he walked backwards towards the couch that he hoped was where it should be. There were so many that for him to miss would be hard but still, Hermione helped direct him a little when she was sure that he was a little bit off course. Hermione fell with him and straddled his waist. There was the sound of a rip and Hermione could feel her skirt start to spread up both sides of her legs. It was her fault for wearing a tight-fitting skirt, but she looked fantastic in it, and when Rael had it laid out, she couldn't take her eyes off of it. Harry trailed his hand back and pressed on her lower back, getting her to thrust down onto his cock as it strained against his pants. It felt so damned good to feel his hard cock rubbing into her.

"Harry?" Hermione asked when she pulled out of the kiss and looked at him.

"I want you," Harry said honestly. There was no shame or fear, or anything but lust in his eyes. Hermione knew that building the basis of their relationship in sex wouldn't be the best idea, but if it allowed their magic to connect in a way that was safe, she was all for it.

"Good. Then have me." Hermione grabbed the back of Harry's head and pulled him back into a kiss. Hermione had worn a button up shirt, so Harry started to pull it from her skirt and started to unbutton it. Hermione could tell that Harry didn't know what he was doing, but she figured that if he did something that she didn't like, she would tell him. It would be gentle, but she wouldn't allow Harry to hurt her in any way shape or form because that would put Harry off sex for a long time. When he got to the top, Hermione felt the edges of his fingers brush against the silk of her bra, Harry's body shivered a little at that. Harry braced his hands on her lower rib cage and pushed her back enough to look at her. His eyes darkened as he took in her slightly above him with her shirt open so that she was mostly bared to him. Draco's worship of her body that next morning after their round of sex had been enlightening to Hermione on so many levels. She never thought that a man looking at her naked would arouse her, but it had. Draco had fully initiated her on oral sex before jerking himself off onto her stomach.

Hermione had never felt more beautiful than seeing Draco looking at her with such lust, and she felt the same with Harry looking at her like that as well. Hermione reached up to run her fingers through her hair, releasing the charms and barrettes that were holding it in place. She liked having hands in her hair, and she didn't want Harry to not do it because he was afraid of messing it up. Harry raised his hand to cup one of her breasts, and it was just perfect, it fit right in his hand. Harry locked eyes with her as he leaned down to lick her silk covered nipple. Hermione didn't hold back the moan at the feel of the warmth of his breath and his tongue on her skin.

"I thought that most witches wore support charms?" Harry asked before he slipped his thumb into the cup and pulled it down to where he could lick Hermione's naked nipple. Hermione reached down to slip off her shirt, leaving her upper body mostly naked for his eye and his hands.

"They do, and I am wearing one, but support charms are not sexy. This kind of silk would be horrid if I work it with no charms. The charms hold me up, so the bra just exists, and I don't have to wear it super tight. Silk though is sexy, especially against my own skin. I adore the feeling of it on me, especially as it rubs on my lips."

"On your lips?" Harry asked.

"My pussy lips, Harry, not my lip lips. Take me to bed, Harry."

Harry wrapped his arms around her and stood up. Hermione wrapped her legs around his waist and held on tight as Harry apparated them to the bedroom. The feel of his magic over her skin as they landed should have made Hermione feel sick, but it just added to what they were doing and made her feel more alive. Harry looked around and then started to walk them to a bed. Harry dropped her there. The seams on either side of her legs were ripped, and the skirt was in tattered pieces. Harry gripped the edges of the skirt and ripped it more. The fabric ripped right up the seam until it was in two pieces in his hands. Hermione raised her arse up to where Harry could pull the skirt up. Harry lifted her feet to remove the heels that she was wearing and tossed them behind his head. Hermione heard them clatter to the floor and hoped that they were damaged, they were the most comfortable pair of heels that she owned.

Hermione settled herself on the bed and spread her legs a little to entice Harry to get up there with her. She could only imagine what she looked like there, laying with her knickers still on and her bra barely holding in her breast. The other was still mostly out of the cup from where Harry had gone after her nipple. Harry started to strip himself, pulling the jumper over his head and tossing it away before working on his trousers. Hermione wanted him on her and inside of her as soon as possible, so she reached down and slipped her fingers under the edge of her knickers before sliding them down all the way to find her clit. She dipped them a little lower and got two of them wet before she started to rub herself. Hermione let her mouth fall open, and her breathy little sounds escape. Harry vanished the rest of his clothes with a wandless charm. He climbed up onto the bed and grabbed Hermione's knees before pushing a little, the bedding was slick, and she slid up to where Harry could climb all the way onto the bed. He grabbed both of her hands and pulled the one free of her knickers with a grin. Harry moved up as far as he could get, his cock brushing over her covered sex. Bringing her hand up to his mouth, Harry sucked Hermione's fingers into his mouth to suck the taste of herself off of them.

There was never anything more erotic to Hermione than that. Harry looked like he was sucking on the best thing in the world. Hermione gasped as he finally let her fingers drop from his mouth before he reached down to open the front clasp on her bra. The fabric fell down to the sides, and Hermione leaned up enough to allow Harry to pull it free from her body. He trailed his fingers down her chest, between her breasts and down even lower. Harry grinned at her a little as he rubbed two knuckles up and down her cloth covered sex. Hermione pushed up into those fingers and let her eyes close in pleasure.

"Draco shared the memory of your first time with him with me. It was hot, and I had to go and jerk off in the shower. He left the memory for me last night in my room. I've been looking forward to this all day long." Harry twisted his fingers in the fabric, and with a little push with his magic the seams of the knickers split and let him pull them off of her body. Hermione could feel his magic in a way that she had never been able to feel it before and it just added to the lust inside of her.

Harry pressed two fingers into her and uttered the spell for pain relief that Draco had to have taught him. She didn't recognise the words, but she recognised the feeling. Hermione knew that long and slow like Draco did wasn't going to happen. Harry had never done anything like this before, and with it being his first time, Hermione was not going to be upset even if he blew his load as soon as he was inside of her. He could rub her off the rest of the way if it came to that. Or Hermione could do it and have him watch to see if he could get hard again. Hermione was okay with either one of those things happening if she didn't get off on his cock inside of her.

Hermione was wet, but Harry uttered a spell, Hermione watched him rub his hand up and down his cock a few times, and it was shiny when he was done. Harry hissed as he did and Hermione wondered if conjured lube was cold and that's what caused the hiss, or it was just the act of stroking his cock that had him hissing.

Harry wiped his hand on the sheets before pushing the head of his cock into her slit. Hermine's eyes closed in pleasure as Harry pushed into her. Hermione felt him stop after just the head was inside and she tried to shop the way that her walls clenched around him but she couldn't. It was like her pussy had a mind of its own.

It took what felt like forever for Harry to get all the way inside of her. She clenched on him every single time that he pushed into her, so it made him pause. Hermione was sure that the pauses were because he was afraid that if he kept going, he was going to come. Hermione didn't try and say that it would be okay, he was doing what he wanted to Hermione all of it felt wonderful. Every time that Hermione took a deep breath she could feel her walls clench so she tried not to breathe too much, but she did take a breath, Harry seemed to feel her even more so she went back to her normal breathing.

Hermione never thought that sex would feel this good, both with Draco and with Harry. The feeling of a cock inside of her was the best thing in the world. She was kind of glad that she had never had sex before doing it with her soulmates, she probably would have been bored with it by the time that she got to them. Hermione was thanking the stars that she had a contraceptive spell in place because feeling what she was feeling with a condom in place would have really cut her rush at the drag and pull of a cock sliding in and out of her.

"If I come after a few thrusts forgive me," Harry uttered as he pulled out a little to push back in.

Harry must have felt a little less like he was going to come with every thrust inside of her. Harry pushed himself all the way inside of her and balanced himself on a single hand. Hermione watched him with half-lidded eyes, liking the slight blurriness that her lashes gave him as he reached up to cup one of her breasts. Hermione arched up into his mouth as he latched onto her nipple. He raised his head up a little, pulling her breast up with him. She knew that it shouldn't have felt as good as it, but she wanted him to do that forever.

"Oh, Harry, fuck, more," Hermione panted as she grabbed the back of his hair with one hand and the bed with the other. Hermione came with a shudder, and she felt Harry's cock swell inside of her, she really hoped that was an orgasm for him because she wasn't sure if she could take much more at all. Her body felt like it was one fire, good at the moment but not if it kept on. Harry buried his face her neck after kissing up her chest. He panted out his orgasm there as his hips jerked a little and his cock rubbed in all the right ways inside of her.

"I want to see sometime if you can come just from your nipples being played with. Maybe both of us sucking on a tit each," Harry said as he rolled to his side beside her. Hermione breathed for a few seconds before she rolled to face him. The room felt cool on Hermione's skin, but she didn't care because she didn't want to cover up because that would mean covering Harry up as well. She was okay being naked around him right then, seeing him naked wasn't a hardship either

"I think that I'll have a hard time keeping up with the both of you." Hermione reached out and brushed a few strands of sweaty hair from Harry's forehead. "You had a quick change of heart."

"I was focusing too much on trying to make sure that I didn't upset myself that I wasn't listening to my magic at all. Yesterday with Luna helped to calm me down and I tapped into my magic wholly when making the noodles. I was trying too hard to control myself and keep my emotions in check that I forgot that letting though is good for me. Draco had asked if I wanted the memory for when it was a good time for me to see it and see that sex didn't have to be scary. I didn't need to worry about doing anything other than making myself and you feel better."

"Last you, and I talked you were having trouble seeing me anything other than a friend."

"Watching Draco's memory of having sex with you helped a lot on that. He's so damned sure no his movements, and I just tried to keep myself in that mindset as well. If I was too unsure, I could hurt you, and I knew that."

"You did act like a man on a mission. I liked it. Though I might have an issue when you make that face when working on anything else. That book that Spencer let me borrow has a spell to mask the scent of arousal in a woman. I might have to use that."

Harry laughed as he looked at Hermione. Hermione could feel that her face was still flushed. Harry traced his fingers all along her skin. She could see that he was covered in a sheen of sweat and the lights in the room made it seem like he was glowing.

"You can touch whenever you want to, you know."

"I know, but I'm...still dealing with the fact that I want to touch anyone. I didn't have-" Harry bit his lip as he seemed to think about what he wanted to say. "I think that the potion that Ginny was giving me pushed down my libido. I talked to the healer about it, but given that we can't exactly test it he's trusting me. I mean Ginny and I would snog, and I liked it, but I had no urge to take her clothes off and fuck her. They think that it was something to do with is suppressing my urge to want any other woman but her but knowing that I was bisexual. It was weird, and I didn't like it and seeing the memory of Draco just sort of flipped a switch. Seeing you like that was arousing and I liked it. I made it hard to think about anything but that. Seeing you naked in real life."

"You can see me naked as long as we are alone or with Draco in real life as much as you want. I'm kind of really liking sex."

"I like what I have had of sex so far."

Hermione finally allowed her eyes move off of Harry's face, and she looked around. She hadn't been inside of Harry's room in his wing, so she was curious. However, as she took in the room, she realised that it was not that room. No, this was the room in the master wing.

"Harry," Hermione said. She looked at his face when after a few seconds Harry said nothing. His eyes were closed, and his face was kind of lax. Hermione grinned at him, and she was sure that it was smitten looking grin on her face. She summoned her wand, happy that it was one of the new wandless spells that she could do at the moment. It was nice to be able to call it from where it was. She cleaned them up, using a cleaning charm to get rid of the sweat on their skin before casting a spell to cover them with the blanket that they had been on top of before. Hermione knew that it was dirty, but as it was all on top, it wasn't going to affect them at the moment. Hermione scooted forward to kind of tuck herself into Harry's body and sighed when Harry threw his arm over the top of her. It was nice and warm, and she thought that a nap wouldn't be that bad.

_October 17, 2000_

Harry tried to roll onto his stomach as he woke up, wanting to stretch out. His body felt like it hadn't moved at all during the night. He found though that something was in the way. Harry inhaled and through about rolling onto his back. He must have grabbed pillows and stuck them in front of himself during the night. That thought fled his mind though when he felt what he was leaning against moved. Harry opened his eyes to see that it was a person, not just any person but Hermione. Harry waited and waited, but nothing happened.

There was no freakout, no urge to flee. Hermione was tucked into his body like she couldn't get close enough. Harry though pulled her just a bit more closer to himself, feeling his morning erection pressing into her hip. This was something that Harry never thought he wanted, Hermione. Seeing her as Draco had seen her though had made Harry really see her for the first time. He hadn't lied when he said that it kind of tripped something inside of him. Hermione made a noise, and it made Harry pull the blankets up to both of their chins. The room wasn't cold at all, in fact, the air felt warmer than it usually did in the rooms.

Harry looked around, realising that in his want to get to a bed he had not focused well enough on his own bed. They were in the bedroom of the master wing. Harry wasn't sure how he felt about that. Hermione's time with Draco had happened in Draco's room, but Harry had carried Hermione into the wrong room. Harry hoped that Draco would not be upset. He had not meant to take the both of them in there.

The rustle of clothing told Harry that they were not alone. He figured it was an Elf doing some cleaning up after them, probably grabbing their clothes to take care of. Harry tucked the blanket around Hermione on all sides before he slipped out from under his section of it. He checked on the blanket before he got off of the bed all the way. Harry turned around to see which Elf was in the room. Dobby had broken Harry of his need to always be dressed in front of him, and it was carrying over to the rest of the Elves as well.

However, it was quickly evident that it was not an Elf that was in the room. Not when the smell of food hit Harry's nose, and he turned to find it. There was a tray of food on a table in the corner and beyond that table was Draco, curled in the vast and very fluffy chair that Harry had sat in a single time and almost fell asleep in it. Draco was dressed in a robe and had a book propped on the arm of the chair. He wasn't looking up at Harry yet, but Harry could see that the skin under his eyes was smudged with darkness. Draco had not got a lot of sleep the night before. Harry had been given the message about him staying the night at Spencer's, but it didn't look like they were having fun with the sleepover.

Draco reached out and grabbed a few grapes from the tray in front of him and popped one into his mouth as he turned the page in the book. He was wholly absorbed in the reading that he was doing. Harry softly cleared his throat. Draco startled a little and closed the book before setting down the grapes on the tray again. Only then did Draco look up at him. Draco gave Harry such a beautiful smile that Harry's heart ached a little at it. Harry smiled back as Draco stood up. Harry realised that while Draco wasn't entirely naked, he was mostly naked under the robe. Draco didn't walk over to where Harry was but instead went to the closet that was along the wall. He came out with a robe in his hands. Harry watched him walk up to him but Draco didn't go in front, he went behind and draped the robe over Harry's body before reaching around to tie the robe closed. Harry closed his eyes at the feel of Draco close but not touching him. Harry made a bold move and stepped back into Draco's arms, lining up nearly the whole of their bodies. Harry looked down to watch Draco tying the robe after opening his eyes. Draco's hands stuttered at Harry pressing his body into the other man's.

"You seem playful this morning," Draco said.

"Maybe because I feel playful."

"Is that what it takes to make Harry Potter playful? Having sex with a beautiful woman? Look at her, she's all worn out and asleep, and you are standing here horny as if you hadn't even fucked her." Draco's hands dropped from the robe and moved up to hold Harry's shoulders. Draco nuzzled the back of his neck. "Come on, let's eat some breakfast."

Harry nodded, not trusting his voice at all. Draco guided him over toward where the chair was. Harry's wand was at the bedside where he had set it the night before, or one of the Elves had, Harry wasn't exactly sure, but he could see it when he turned to look for it. The night was a blur right up until he had slid inside of Hermione. Draco sat down in the chair and curled his finger in a come here gesture at Harry. Harry swallowed as he stepped up to stand right in front of Draco. Draco reached up and cupped the sides of Harry's hips before gently tugging him down. Harry knew what Draco wanted, but it was going to be the closest that Harry had been to him outside of hugs and Harry wasn't sure that he wanted it. Draco didn't tug on his hips again and just kept his hands there but loosened them a little so that Harry could step back at any point with no hindrance.

There was so much more to sitting down in Draco's lap, but it was also just simple. He could do it, and nothing terrible would happen. Draco wouldn't take advantage of him. Draco wasn't that kind of person as Harry had learned over the years since the end of the war. Hell, Draco was more about consent than any other person that Harry knew. Harry had said fuck it in his head the day before and went with what felt right when it came to Hermione, he needed to trust in himself and in Draco enough to do the same. Draco had opened himself up to a lot of hurts when he had opened up his house to Harry and Hermione when there was nothing between them. Draco had shown them that he was allowing them to hurt him even when they offered nothing in return. He had done it and made it seem so easy.

Harry must have made a face of some kind that showed that he was willing to follow Draco's hands because Draco pulled on his hips again, helping Harry to settle on his lap. Draco smirked up at him, but it wasn't a condescending one, but something that was almost proud in it's bearing. Draco's hands slipped around to Harry's back but stayed above the robe. Harry's cock was still mostly hard, and when Draco tucked Harry in as close as Harry could get with their clothing still on, it started to harden the rest of the way.

"I'm sorry," Harry said.

"Don't be. I'd be a little worried if you didn't have a reaction of some sort. I know that just because you have an erection doesn't mean you are anywhere ready for anything remotely like that you and Hermione did. We have a lot of things to overcome before we become intimate like that. Right now I need to feel useful so let me feed you."

"Feed me?" Harry asked, blushing a little bit. No one had ever fed him before. In fact, his aunt had left him to learn how to do that on his own after he had stopped eating porridge. He remembered eating a lot of Cheerios dry for many meals.

"Yes."

Harry heard the table move a little bit and then Draco's hand was appearing with a half of a strawberry in it. Harry opened his mouth when Draco's hand got close. Draco didn't touch Harry's lips at all, just dropped the fruit inside and backed off. Harry wasn't sure what to do with his hands and if Draco read his mind the hand came back and pressed a cup of Earl Grey into them.

"The only thing you need to worry about is taking a drink when you want. Libby made me a rather large pot, and it's under a warming charm."

Nothing that Draco fed Harry was anything that he was used to eating for a meal. There was fruit, yes but there were small tarts of various kinds that were filled with meats and cheeses and potato. It was all very good, but Harry found himself getting full quickly. Draco fed himself as much as he did Harry, drinking from his own cup up tea that he only picked up when he wanted a drink. While Harry was sure that it wasn't Draco's intention, the meal was one of the better ones that Harry had ever eaten. He did not, however, want to eat every single meal like that.

It was wonderful, sitting in Draco's lap and having nothing else to focus on. Harry reached out and touched the edge of Draco's robe, looking at the swatch of naked skin that he could see right around Draco's collarbone. Harry skirted his fingers across the bit of skin. Draco looked down at where Harry's hand was before he took a sip of his tea. Harry got bold and placed his hand wholly on Draco's naked skin.

"Do you like playing with snakes?" Draco asked.

"I don't know I've never played with a snake before," Harry said. He was fairly certain that Draco was not calling his cock a snake, so he had to mean the Slytherin side of Draco. Draco set his teacup down and took Harry's from his hand, setting it down as well. Harry reached down to undo Draco's robe, letting it fall open a little bit. Draco was wearing a pair of sleep pants under his robe, but Harry was naked. He didn't really want to be naked in front of Draco but whatever he did to the other man he expected to be the same. He wouldn't expect Draco to strip naked while he was still dressed. "Cna I get up?"

"Tell me why?" Draco asked, but his hands didn't move from where he had them on Harry's thighs.

"I..." Harry wasn't sure what he wanted to say. He didn't know if he wanted to get up and not go back or just get up and get a pair of pants so that he could take off the robe. Harry gripped the edge of Draco's robe and thought about how soft it really was. Harry's felt the same, but Draco's was black while Harry's was green. Harry wondered if Draco had several robes in many colours or if he had bought specific ones for him and Hermione. Harry distracted himself with playing with the robe while he thought about what he wanted. "I want to get some sleep pants to wear."

"Are you a Wizard or aren't you?" Draco asked as he leaned up a little and bussed a kiss on Harry's lips. Harry felt the swell of magic that said that Draco had done something, but he wasn't sure what it was until he felt pants almost materialising on the skin of his legs. Draco pulled back, settling down into the chair again and his hands worked on opening Harry's robe. Harry groaned as Draco wrapped his hands around Harry's hips without the robe material between them.

"You did that wandless and silent."

"Yes. Some things that Spencer has taught me have stuck. Though that one was the first as I detested getting out of bed to get dressed in sleeping clothes if I slept naked with someone." Draco trailed a hand up to Harry's back, between his shoulder blades to tug Harry down a little. Draco butterfly kissed up the line of Harry's neck before Harry dipped his head to take his mouth in a kiss.

Harry wasn't ready for full-on sex, nothing with cocks going into orifices but touching and kissing he thought that maybe he could do. Draco dominated the kiss with a great deal of emotion, and Harry let him while he worked on getting Draco's robe to puddle around his waist. When he was sure that Draco was laid out for him, he worked his own robe down to match. Harry braced his hands on Draco's chest, just below his rib cage, spreading his fingers wide to keep himself up.

"Open up for me, Harry," Draco whispered against Harry's lips.

"Yeah," Harry said back. Harry dipped down first and opened his mouth like Draco wanted. Harry was hesitant as he met Draco's tongue just as it was slipped into his mouth. Draco darted his tongue in just enough to press against the tip of Harry's before it was gone. Harry kept trying to get Draco to go further, but every single time that Harry's tongue touched Draco's, Draco would pull his back into his mouth. Harry got fed up with that and reached up to hold Draco's head in place before he finally darted his tongue out and into Draco's mouth. Draco settled his hands on Harry's hips and lined their cocks up. Harry stilled at the feel of Draco's cock pressed into his own. Draco stilled as well but didn't let go. Harry started to settle down and started up the kissing again chasing Draco's tongue back and forth between their mouths. Harry didn't let go of Draco's hair and braced his other hand on Draco's neck.

Draco touched as much as he wanted all over Harry's back and chest as he thrust up subtly into Harry's cock. Harry started to meet him thrust for thrust and was enjoying himself more than he thought he ever could when it came to Draco and sex.

"There you go," Draco said after pulling his mouth from Harry's. Draco pulled Harry's head down to hide it in his neck. Harry nipped at the skin in front of him and loved the feel of Draco thrusting a little harder into him in response. Draco trailed his hand down Harry's back, his short nails barely touching skin until he braced that hand on Harry's lower back to help guide Harry through harder and more intense thrusts. It was more like grinding than anything else.

"Lube or something?" Harry asked. It didn't feel bad but if they ground against each other anymore, it would. He had no control over his magic at the moment, and he was afraid that he would drown them in lube if he tried to call it.

Draco chuckled, but he wiggled his hand down between their bodies. "I'm going to touch your cock to get lube on it. Don't freak out."

"Okay." Harry swallowed as he felt cold air slip into his sleep pants. Draco's hand on his cock was sure and quick as he felt cool lube being spread on it. Harry's hips jerked because Draco's first was tight around him and it felt so damned good. Almost too good but Harry kept control of himself to make sure that he didn't come. Draco's hand was gone just a second later, and then he felt the hand bumping him through their pants as Draco slicked up his cock as well. There was an utterance, and then Draco's hand was on Harry's neck to pull him down into a kiss again. Harry let Draco have control of the kiss because he didn't want to have to think but just react to what was happening. It all felt good, better than anything he had ever thought something like this would be. He didn't think that it would feel that good with anyone else, just Draco or even Hermione.

Harry gripped Draco's side and tried to hold on, to make this last as long as possible but he couldn't, and he came before he wanted to. His body going stiff and he straightened his spine to breathe as he tried not to call out.

"Oh, fuck," Harry said, his voice low.

Draco thrust up into Harry as he came and just as Harry was coming down, he felt Draco's body go stiff. Draco mouthed at the skin of Harry's chest, muffling the sounds of his orgasm into Harry's body. It was perfect to Harry. The whole of it. He wanted to do it again and again until it didn't feel that way anymore because night now he craved it. Harry said nothing, keeping his face buried in Draco's neck.

"We don't have to talk right now," Draco said, his voice calm and serene. Sounding nothing like he had just coaxed himself and Harry to mutual orgasms without touching naked cocks. "But we will talk all of this out. I wasn't planning on this, and while you seem okay with it now, I want to make sure that it stays that way."

"Okay."

"I mean it, Harry."

"I know." Harry sat up and looked at Draco with a grin on his face. "I look forward to talking it all out as soon as we can. First, though I'm still hungry."

"Good thing Libby makes a lot of food huh?" Draco asked with a smile.

Harry nodded. He shivered a little at Draco's wandless and silent cleaning spell that would at least do until Harry showered. He hadn't showered the night before, so he had to smell like Hermione still and the sex that they had. That thought sent Harry's mind wandering. Did Draco give in because Harry smelled like that or did he just not even think about sex because he and Harry hadn't even so much as snogged before that moment? Harry knew that Draco didn't have sex with him just because he smelled like sex and Hermione but the thought that it might have made him horny had Harry wondering what their sex life would be like. Would it be a long line of partner sex back and forth until it all culminated in them all sleeping together? Harry knew that he wasn't ready for going that far, but it seemed like it might be going that way at some point soon.


	11. Chapter 10

# Chapter 10

_October 26, 2000_

Draco felt the warmth of the fire in his bedroom and didn't want to move. Too many Wizards were idiots, and it made Draco want to punch a lot of them. He had been in meetings all day listening to Wizards fight with Goblins. He knew that once he was done with his training with them, he would be talked into trying to take on many of the Wizards who pissed the Goblins off.

The wards in the bedroom shifted, telling him that Harry had entered the room. Draco didn't open his eyes nor move to cover himself up. Draco was sort of undressed. He still had on every stitch of clothing, but he had undone all of it. His suit jacket was draped somewhere, Draco had just tossed it away. His tie, dress shirt, and pants were undone, and Draco was pretty sure that his pants were halfway down his thighs. Libby had brought him food at the bank at five glaring at the Goblins until they laughed.

"Want help?" Harry asked from somewhere close to Draco and kind of off to the side. Draco didn't even open his eyes as he shrugged. "Hermione flooed earlier, and she will be at least another day."

"Who wouldn't want to be in Monte Carlo right now?" Draco asked as he finally opened his eyes and looked at Harry. Harry was in a pair of sleep pants and nothing else which was a contrast to what he was usually in. Harry was blushing, and that intrigued Draco. Draco held his hand out, and Harry took it, allowing himself to be pulled into Draco's lap. "I like you right here."

"Yeah?" Harry asked before he dipped his head to press a kiss to Draco's lips. "Are you too tired for this?"

"Thìs what?" Draco asked.

Harry's blush turned redder, and that made Draco really look at him. He started at Harry's face and ended on his crotch. It was very evident that Harry was hard. Drac hadn't noticed it before, but he was sure that he had probably been hard since before sitting in Draco's lap.

"And what are you wanting to do with your hard prick?" Draco asked, pulling himself up in the chair to where he was sitting normally. It brought harry's prick into contact with his body. "Do you want me to touch it? Or do you want to do what we did the last time?"

So far everything they had done stayed above the clothes. They never got more naked than what Harry was at the moment. Draco was fine with that. He was happy that Harry was keeping his own pace instead of trying to match whatever speed he and Hermione or even Draco and Hermione were at.

Harry shook his head and turned to look at the bed. A place that Harry had never gone to. Their few sexual encounters happened in chairs and on couches. Draco leaned forward and wrapped his arm around Harry's waist, feeling Harry wrap his legs around Draco's.

"Take me to your bed. Take me _in_ your bed," Harry whispered in Draco's ear.

Draco wasn't going to ask if Harry was sure. He wouldn't have said it if he wasn't sure at that moment. Their first sexual encounter had been discussed to death, with Hermione glaring at them because she slept through it in the same room. Draco stood up and waited for his body to adjust to the extra weight before he started to walk to the bed. Harry had put on weight, both in muscle and just adding weight that he sorely needed in the time that he had been living with Draco and Hermione. It was nice to see.

When Draco's knees brushed the bed, he let go of Harry's waist to let him drop to the bed. Harry looked up at him with a grin on his face before scooting back on t bed. Draco smiled back at Harry and started to take his clothes off. The bone tiredness that he had before was gone, and the thrum of arousal was replacing it.

"You said to take you," Draco said.

"Yes. I want to feel that."

"You change your mind at any point, and we can just do other things that feel good." Draco started to strip off his clothes which wasn't hard, except for his socks. Harry had taken up yelling at Draco for vanishing his socks, so he leaned down to take them off.

Harry nodded when Draco looked at him after taking off his socks. Harry was watching Draco closely, and Draco really liked that. He was still a little too tired and too much into getting naked to get on top of Harry to make the strip show fun or nice even. He wanted to be naked as quick as possible. Harry swallowed when Draco focused on him again before getting up on the bed. Harry still had his sleep pants on so Draco grabbed the bottom hem of the and gave a tug. Harry lifted his hips up and allowed the cloth to be drawn off of him.

"Did you shower before you left training?" Draco asked.

"Yes." Harry sounded and looked very confused on the question. Draco kneed up onto the bed, grabbing Harry's ankles and spreading them apart enough to where he could fit between them. Draco wandless summoned a pillow to him. He set it to the side os that he could grab it when he wanted. Harry was eyeing it like he wasn't sure what it was used for and Draco thought about what Harry knew about sex between two males.

"So what exactly do you know about anal sex?" Draco asked. He scooted up to where he was touching Harry's legs and could reach all of the really arousing parts of Harry's anatomy. Harry lifted his knees up and let his leg fall open, giving Draco a good bit more access to him.

"I know where the parts go," Harry exclaimed and acted like he was going to scoot down the bed. Draco stilled him with hands on his hips. Draco glared at Harry.

"I sure that even an idiot could figure out that you only have a single orifice below your waist that a prick would go, Harry. I'm asking what else you know. Have you ever played with your hole? Have you read any books on anal sex or even male on male sex. Have you and Hermione discussed anal sex between the two of you? There are a lot of things that I would take for granted that I know that you might not know about sex."

"I read a book that Spencer had...it was an erotica book that really had nothing to do with anything but an excuse to have two men fucking as much as possible. He said that it was a good bad not too fantastical representation of anal sex." Harry was blushing so much that his face looked like he was sunburned. Draco leaned down to place a kiss on his stomach. Draco grabbed the pillow with one hand and slid his other under Harry's arse to lift him up to where he could slide the pillow under it. Later they could have fun and take their time. Harry was already tight as a cord and Draco wanted to see how relaxed he could get him before sliding into him.

"That's good. So you know why I have the pillow under your hips?"

"Yes."

"Good. Then lay back and enjoy."

"Enjoy? Draco?" Harry started to push himself up, but Draco reached up to press on Harry's stomach and keep him down where he was. Draco stroked on Harry's prick, feeling the warmth of it as well as the fact that it wasn't soft at all. Draco twisted his hands a little when he got to the head of Harry's cock and instead of sliding his hand back down, he slid his mouth down. Harry's hips tried to come up off the pillow, but Draco had been expecting it and had his hand still on his stomach just a little lower.

"Oh fuck," Harry said.

Draco felt Harry moving and looked to see a hand grabbing the blanket on the bed. Draco let himself smile a little as he worshipped Harry's cock a little. Draco had not asked if Harry had ever let Ginny do anything like this. He kind of didn't want to know but did at the same time. Draco conjured lube, knowing that either way on a blowjob, Harry wasn't going to last long and Draco wanted to be inside of him before he came.

Pressing a finger over Harry's hole, Draco knew the thrust would come, and he moved into it, letting Harry's prick slide just a little further down his throat before he swallowed around the head.

"Draco!" One of Harry's hands grabbed Draco's head, and Draco was pleased that Harry wasn't trying to push him further down his prick but instead was just holding him in close. Draco pushed his first finger into Harry slowly. Every single time that Harry clenched, Draco would stop and pull out only to push back in and make it further.

Draco kept his attention on Harry's prick a little, but he wasn't aiming to get Harry off that way. Instead he was just using it to keep Harry's attention off of what was happening in his arse. As Harry got used to the feeling of a finger, his whole body relaxed quicker than Draco would have thought that made Draco think that Harry had been playing with himself. That was something that Draco wanted to see sometime. Harry fingering himself on the bed with fingers shoved in his arse. Or in the shower, his back to Draco and not knowing that Draco is watching him. So many fantasies that they had their long lives to indulge in.

By the time that Draco had three fingers in Harry's arse, Harry was uttering words that Draco couldn't understand because Harry was talking too fast and way too much. Draco pulled his fingers free of Harry's hole before he pulled off his prick as well. Draco looked up at Harry's face to see him with his eyes closed and the hand that didn't have a hold of Draco's head was holding onto the headboard of the bed with a grip that was so hard his hand was white.

Harry slowly realised that Draco wasn't inside of him or sucking his prick anymore and he opened his eyes and sought out Draco.

"Ready for my prick?" Draco asked, his voice gravely with arousal and from the attention that he had been giving to Harry's prick.

"Yes." Harry sounded suer which was good for Draco because he didn't feel that he needed to ask again or make sure that Harry really was sure. "Your language is horrible."

"I like prick; I really like my prick, I'll call it what I want." Draco grinned as he moved up. He used the hand that had just had fingers up Harry's arse to steady his cock as he slowly pressed inside of his mate. Drac couldn't help the closing of his eyes as Harry's heat wrapped around his prick. Harry's hand on his neck didn't let up and instead started to pull on Draco, trying to make him go faster inside of him. Draco resisted that hand and moved at his own pace. "Though I do know some blokes who call their pricks their real wands."

Harry laughed, and his whole body shook. Draco barely kept himself from shoving the rest of the way inside of him. It was heaven and hell at the same time because while Harry was opening beautifully, Draco did not want to take the chance and hurt him. Unlike Hermione, Harry didn't want the spells to help with pain and discomfort. Draco had fought with him a little on that but agreed that it was Harry's body.

"I didn't think one was supposed to laugh during sex," Harry said when Draco was leaning totally over him, his hips pressed as far into Harry's arse as he was going to get.

"Sex is supposed to be fun, if one can't laugh during it, then they are doing sex wrong." Draco propped himself up on a single hand and used the other to brush the hair from Harry's forehead. "Only a single way are you a virgin now. I look forward to that later. How do you feel?"

"Full," was Harry's quick answer telling Draco that he was being honest.

Draco nodded and pulled out a little to thrust back inside, gently. There wasn't a lot of reaction on Harry's part as he did but he could tell that Harry was a little overwhelmed, so Draco found an easy in and out rhythm that kept things good for him but wasn't too much on Harry. Harry's back relaxed a little as Draco kept up the steady thrusts. Harry reached up at one point and pulled Draco down to kiss him.

It was after that point that Draco stopped trying to be gentle and easy, he took what he needed. Harry's hands were everywhere, nails catching when Draco found Harry's prostate for the second thrust in a row and gentling out to something different for the next thrust. It was a back and forth as they both found pleasure in each others' bodies.

"Dray," Harry said his new nickname for Draco slipping out of his lips as his hips jerked and Draco felt warmth start to spread between their sweat-slick bodies. Harry pulled on Draco's head trying to mash their mouths together. It was sloppy and something that Draco would have shoved other lovers away for. Back when he had been a ponce and entitled and an asshole. Draco had learned with a string of discreet lovers after the war that sex was meant to be fun and it didn't matter what decorum one had during it.

Draco found his release in Harry just a few thrusts later, teeth clacking as Harry met him thrust for thrust even if he was oversensitized. Draco's limbs gave out on holding him up, but he at least angled himself to fall onto his side, curling into Harry's body. Harry threw the pillow off the bed after he pulled it out from under his hips. His hand came up and curled around Draco's arm that was thrown across his chest.

"I refuse to fall asleep naked and covered in spunk," Draco said even as he yawned.

"Do you object to falling asleep naked?" Harry asked.

"No." Draco felt Harry moving and figured that he was going for his wand. Draco heard the uttered spell for cleaning them up and the wash of magic over his body. Draco didn't like cleaning up with magic, but he was too damned tired to want to get up and actually shower. He could do that in the morning. Xibby made sure his sheets were changed daily, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Draco felt Harry moving again and realised that he was grabbing blankets that he had tossed on the floor. Draco hadn't even noticed that the bed had been stripped of the blankets and sheet. Draco chastised himself for not realising.

"When did you strip the bed?"

"Earlier. Xibby said that you were taken food. I wasn't aiming for sex, though I enjoyed it. I know you've been stressed with what you are learning, I wanted to see if you wanted to cuddle. I thought that a small massage would help you relax and I didn't want you to have to get up to get under the covers."

"Massage?" Draco asked. He was trying to keep his eyes open, but he was warm and cuddled into Harry. It was all kinds of wonderful.

"Dobby found me a beginners class. It's every Thursday right after I get done with Auror training and lasts about an hour. It yours and Hermione's long days so I am not here alone for too long."

Draco hummed and turned a little more on his side to where he was draped all over Harry. Harry tightened his arm that was wrapped around Draco's back. Draco wanted to ask something, but he was so tired he didn't know how to make his mouth and vocal cords work.

"I don't like being here alone," Harry whispered into Draco's hair. Draco made a sound and even to his tired ears, it sounded like a wounded animal. One of Harry's hands started to pet Draco's head. He felt like he should take offence to that. "Shush."

"Harry," Draco said finally getting his mouth to work.

"Shush, sleep, Dray."

As if the words were the only thing he needed, Draco felt himself drift off the rest of the way.

There was warmth and wet in a place where it hadn't been just seconds before. Draco moaned and tried to grab the head that was on his prick, but there was nothing. The wet left, and as it did, he realised it was a flannel. Draco felt a kiss placed on his hip before the body that was in bed with him slid up to kiss his mouth. Draco reached up and found hard muscles and not a soft stomach. That meant it was Harry. Draco kissed back, sliding his hands around to Harry's arse.

Draco gripped each cheek ard and tried to tug Harry's prick down to where it could thrust against his own.

"No," Harry uttered after wrenching his lips away from Draco. "I woke up after a very naughty dream where I took you. I want to do that, not hump on each other until we come."

"Yes," Draco said. He parted his legs and lifted his knees to where Harry was slotted right where he needed to be. Draco kept his grip on Harry's arse because he wanted more kissing.

Harry indulged him for a while, at least until Harry couldn't take it anymore. Harry shifted to where Draco had to let go of at least one cheek to be not constructed as Harry's fingers gripped Draco's lifted it up to where he could get access to Draco's arse. Draco heard uttered words and then slick fingers were right there. Draco loved sex, but he loved this part more. Draco leaned up to seek out Harry's mouth without opening his eyes. He wanted to be kissed while he was being fingered.

"Greedy thing aren't you?" Harry asked before granting Draco his lips.

Harry was gentle, almost too gentle but Draco knew that it would only go away with time and Harry getting used to what he was doing. It was a slow slide from one finger to three, and Draco almost wanted to ask or four. He could orgasm just from that alone and sometimes liked that. He would have to talk to Harry about fingering him off and then putting him on hands and knees and fucking him until he was hard again.

When Harry pulled his fingers free, Draco expected to feel his cock going in next. Draco spread his legs as far as he could get and started lift them next but Harry's hand on his knee stopped him. Harry gripped Draco's knee and turned him before settling in behind him.

"Can we like this?" Harry asked, breath ghosting over Draco's neck. Harry's hard prick pressed up against Draco's arse cheeks.

"Yes," Draco said.

"Good." Harry pulled back enough to where he could get his hand on his prick before starting to slide inside of Draco. Draco knew that he was relaxed because he body offered no resistance to Harry. Harry was inside of him in a single slide. "Fuck."

"I thought that was what we were doing."

"It was like your arse was sucking my cock inside."

"I do love being fucked. I've got a magical dildo that I used in school. I'd lay on my bed on my stomach and set it up to fuck me. God, it felt good." Draco shuddered as Harry found a rhythm in and out with his prick sliding over Draco's prostate nearly every thrust.

"Maybe sometime you can show Hermione and me it. We can hold you so you can't touch your cock and let it fuck you to orgasm." Harry grabbed Draco's hip to thrust harder inside of him. Draco reached behind his head to grip Harry's head and bring him close. Harry's lips found the skin where neck and shoulder met, rubbing back and forth until a hard thrust had Draco moaning. Harry's lips spread and Draco could feel teeth nipping at the skin.

Harry thrust and thrust and Draco was wondering exactly how long the man would be able to go because Draco was sure that he would have come by that point. Draco himself was barely holding on by a thread.

"Harry," Draco said his voice sounding broken because he wasn't sure if he wanted to come or not. Harry let go of the skin on Draco's neck and mouthed up to his ear.

"Do you want me to fill you up?"

"Fuck, Harry. Please."

Harry mouthed something into Draco's skin, no words attached to it but Draco felt the magic of it. Harry's hand on his hip squeezed tight, holding Draco fully in place as he thrust in hard, one last time. Draco felt himself tip over into orgasm as well. Harry curled around Draco a little, pushing Draco's top leg to where it was off of his other and bent. It was like Harry was trying to surround Draco.

"I'll clean us up in a few."

"Did you learn that cock ring spell?" Draco asked because it was the only thing that made sense as far as Harry uttering a spell at that point in sex. Harry turned his head to just breathe into Draco's skin. It was utterly intimate and too much for Draco. He wanted to pull out of Harry's hands. He wanted to run, but he knew that it would hurt the both of them. The feelings inside of Draco were swelling, and he knew that it was deep affection, but he wasn't willing to call it anything other than that.

"I had Dobby make me a copy of Spencer's book. I had fun learning it, what it felt like around my cock." Harry yawned into Draco's neck before he finally let go of Draco's hip. Draco felt him moving in the bed but keeping them close, his cock still inside of Draco. Draco had never had someone try and stay inside of him after sex. He was used to just rolling over, cleaning up, and leaving. At least when he was with another male who had just fucked him. He had liked the sleeping bit with Harry earlier and the sleeping after he had sex with Hermione. Draco reached out his hand to brush it over the empty spot in front of him. Soon, hopefully, Hermione would be there, at least on occasion.

Harry pulled out of Draco and cleaned them up with magic. The blankets were pulled up, and Harry wrapped his arm around Draco. Harry was like an octopus, he was everywhere around Draco and Draco loved it.

_October 28, 2000_

For a Friday night, the castle was quiet. Hermione frowned. She had apparated into her bedroom to change out of the heels and skirt that she wore to court that day. While she wasn't doing anything more than watching, she liked to be dressed in her best because she was the talk of all of the women's publications inside of England at the moment. Draco and Harry really didn't care about anything to do with her and her wardrobe outside of getting it off of her if they wanted sex.

Sex was had for everyone at least once a week. Hermione was spending a lot of time in court so sometimes by the time that she was done at the office at night, Harry and Draco were already asleep. Hermione wondered if they were relying on sex too much, but it just felt right. Mornings were spent just being together, and Hermione enjoyed that a lot. LUnch was sometimes spent alone, but more often than not at least one of her men was eating with her somewhere. Libby didn't like that they ate out for lunch, but she understood that it was good for them to be seen out and about and during the week it wasn't a good thing for them to do dinner. None of them ever felt like dealing with the press and other nosy assed people. It was bad enough when they went out on a date, all three of them to one of the more upscale WIzarding restaurants in London.

Hermione walked toward Harry's wing and found that was empty, but his main bathroom looked a little like a war zone. She could tell that the Elves hadn't been in to clean up at all. Clothing was all over the bedroom, Harry's training robes which he never wore home as well as what looked like several choices on sleep clothes that he been tossed. Hermione started to get worried when she realised that the bloody things in the bathroom were Harry's underclothes that he wore to training.

The wards on the castle were not fully meshed with Hermione's magic yet, and she knew it was her own fault, she hadn't familiarised herself with it or tried at all really to push her magic into it to allow it to push back at her. She knew the theory on it all, but she was still hesitant to put that much of herself into something that wasn't something that was not a person. Harry was better at that than her, she very much believed in the things that she could touch and feel and while magic was hard for her to really trust in when it came to things that like, she knew that it was real. Draco wasn't pushing her, just like he wasn't pushing her with anything. He very much pushed neither Harry nor her into anything. He never sought out sex with them but instead waited for them to come to him.

After twenty minutes of looking, Hermione found both of her men lounged in one of the smaller living rooms that were in the master wing of the house. Harry was sitting on one of the chaise loungers with his eyes closed. Draco was seated beside him with a hand in his hair. Draco looked worn out. He didn't even turn to look at her when Hermione stopped at the edge of the room. She was well aware that Draco knew that she was in the castle but he never tried to track either her or Harry.

"Looks like we all had a shitty day."

"The Goblins are getting ready to file injunctions against the Ministry. I'm allowed to talk to you three about it, and that is it."

"What happened?" Hermione asked as she entered the room entirely. Harry wasn't moving on the chaise, and Hermione walked around to see his face to find that he was asleep.

"I don't think that many in the Ministry are liking our triad at all. With Harry and I aligned the Wizengamot is going to be hard pressed to pass a lot of things. Longbottom and many others who have claimed their titles will follow us. Spencer has always done what he wanted, and well I tend to vote the same as him. The voting group that will form behind the four of us is massive. The Ministry is challenging the fact that we are soulmates. I think that they want to try and at least prove that someone lied to me and now I'm using that lie that I am not aware of to try and turn you and Harry into some kind of Pure-blood pasty. They are holding that Spencer is the liar."

"Those fuckers," Hermione said as she dropped down to the chase on the other side of Harry from Draco. Draco had his hand buried in Harry's hair, threading his fingers through his hair. Harry seemed to be sleeping naturally, but Hermione couldn't really tell.

"Yes, the Goblins are taking it personally. It's be decades since they have taken on a WIzard for the kind of teaching that they are giving me. The Ministry keeps pushing, and there is going to be sanctions against all of them as far as banking. The Goblins are more than willing to pull out of England and just run the rest of their branches across the world. There are no other banks in Britain like there are in Japan and Russian. The Goblins rule with an iron fist and they have earned their right as master bankers. There is a reason no war has touched them in the Wizarding World beside their own."

"What kind of impact would that have on you?"

"Very little actually. I would just have to go to France to learn the rest and then I can set up shop here like I was going to anyway. Between Harry signing over everything to me, Spencer happy to be rid of having to think about his money at all, and the Malfoy holdings it's not like I am not going to make money hand over fist for all of us. Longbottom made noise about wanting to have me take over his holdings as well. Luna has a good mind for taking care of the shop, and it's various financial things, but stocks and other things are beyond her want to learn. I would have to go to France to do any business that needed a live signature for, but that wouldn't be hard at all."

"They don't want us to have the power they think that we are going to have."

"Sweetie, we already have too much. He's the fucking Boy Who Lived, no matter how much he hates that name. You are two-thirds of the Gryffindor Golden Trio, and I am the Death Eater's son who made sure that his father went in front of the Wizengamot for what he did during the war. Between us, your best friends are Lords Longbottom and Reid. The normal people see all of us as heroes."

Hermione looked at Draco, and she felt out of sorts. She knew that people wanted things for Harry, but she never thought that she would be in that same group. She didn't want to think about that at the moment.

"What happened to Harry?"

"Training accident. It was entire group training today, and one of the newbies did not have control of his spell. It shattered magic resistant glass. That's why the cuts aren't healed. The magic resistance transferred to the wounds. After a Healer looked at him, Harry refused treatment from then and had Dobby come and find me to come home early. I was glad to be away from the Goblins. I gave him a pain potion before cleaning his cuts. The left side is worse than the right. He will wake if you prod him enough."

Hermione looked at Draco and saw the depth of his emotion in his eyes. He was looking at Harry, every single bit of his attention was on him. Draco's face was an open book, and Hermione recognised those looks as ones that she had seen on Draco's face before, usually early in the morning when they were scattered around the breakfast table. She hadn't thought a single thing about the look previously, but now she couldn't stop thinking about it.

"So we all had a shitty day. Why don't you wake up Harry and helped him get dressed in pyjamas, and we can meet in the bedroom of the master suite?"

"Why?" Draco finally looked up from Harry to Hermione.

"Because we are all three going to do something very Muggle."

"Dear Merlin, why?" Draco looked a little horrified.

"Because we need a relaxing night and I think that the Muggle way of doing it is the best."

"And it involves pyjamas?" Draco looked really hesitant. Hermione just smiled at him and waved at Harry. "What about dinner?"

"I was going to pop over to Spencer's and talk to Libby about it."

"I'm trusting you," Draco said, but he looked down at Harry, shaking his shoulder slightly. Hermione watched the way that Harry stretched like a cat but after seconds regretted it and he curled inward with pain. Draco bent over him, almost like he was trying to block the world out from Harry. Hermione knew that as far as recovering from what Ginny had done to him, Harry was in no better hands than Draco Malfoy. Draco was a romantic at heart which Hermione could see him covering up in Hogwarts; it would not have served him, not with the rest of the school and especially with his housemates.

"Dray?" Harry called out softly.

"Hermione is kicking us out of here and into the bedroom."

"Why? Too early." Harry tried to roll over, but he hissed in pain. Draco looked up at Hermione with a smile.

"Well, she's telling me that I need to get both you and I into pyjamas and we are doing something very Muggle. She's not told me anything else."

"Did the Elves get that TV that I wanted all set up with the wards that allow it to run?"

"Yes, as well as the weird box with the smaller boxes with it."

Harry snorted before groaning.

"You said that you would give me a pain potion when I ate something. Toast?"

"I want you to eat more than toast for dinner. You need to eat more than that anyway. I'm sure that Hermione will make sure that Libby makes something easy to eat for you. Or I can feed you again."

"Not tonight, can't do that."

Draco laughed, but he was smiling. He leaned down just a little more and pressed a kiss to Harry's cheek. Hermione could see that there were more cuts on his face than she thought. She could tell which direction Harry had been facing and what way the window had hit him. He looked like someone who jumped through a window instead of being hit by one.

"I wasn't meaning what happened at the end of eating, just that I am willing to feed you, without the happy ending."

Hermione couldn't hold back her snort at that. She had been told what happy ending the two of them had got. Harry was smiling though, and when Hermione looked at Draco, she saw the relief in his eyes.

"I can't carry you, Lord Potter, so you will have to get up." Draco ruffed Harry's hair at the words and Harry huffed but started to push himself up. Hermione stood up to begin to give directions to the Elves on what she wanted, also that no one was to disturb them.

A half an hour later, Hermione was entering the bedroom. She had stopped in her room to change. The bed that dominated the room was covered in soft blankets like she had asked as well as a lot of pillows. Harry was on his side that had the least amount of damage that Hermione could tell. He was in a pair of sleep pants but strangely enough a dress shirt. That was out of place.

Draco was on his side behind Harry, his head propped up on his arm. His free hand was rubbing back and forth on Harry's hip bone. Harry's eyes were closed, but he wasn't asleep he was breathing too randomly to be asleep. The TV was on, and the menu for their movie was waiting for someone to hit play. Hermione knew what it is and she kind of laughed at Harry's choice in the film. It would allow them a lot of cuddling time over the weekend.

"You guys ready?" Hermione asked as she crossed the room. Draco turned to look back at her a smile on his face.

"Harry's looking forward to my reactions to this movie." Draco turned back to the front and dropped a kiss on Harry's neck.

Hermione felt something off in the room, something had entered it. She started to look around. She noticed that Harry was stiff and still on the bed, but Draco wasn't.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Draco asked.

"There is something-" Hermione cut herself off as she heard a hissing sound from around her feet. She looked down and saw nothing. She felt nothing as well. Whatever was making the noise was silent then and invisible. Hermione drew her wand from the holder on her arm, she hadn't taken it off wanting to have it with her. Hermione looked at he bed, staring at Harry who was shaking slightly and when Hermione looked at his face, she saw it was laughter.

"No wonder Draco didn't notice. It's Sauron. He's lonely and is demanding that I cuddle with him." Harry sounded like he was a few seconds from really losing it.

"Why is he invisible?"

"Spencer probably had him at work with him, and he keeps him invisible because Sauron even freak out those in the Department of Mysteries." Draco reached out, and Hermione saw that there was a dip on the bed. "Spencer had to leave for the weekend something to do with a mission. He warned me that Sauron might show up tomorrow, not today."

"When I had lunch with Spencer this week he said that Sauron has been feeling lonely even with Spencer around," Hermione said. She reached out as on as both she and Draco touched Sauron he became visible. The snake started to hiss, and Hermione looked at Harry.

"He's really excited to watch the movie with us."

"How does he know the movie?" Draco asked.

Sauron started to hiss, and Harry laughed. It was a full body shake. Sauron slithered around to lay in front of Harry, just the size to kind of take up all of the bed in front of Harry. Hermione looked at the bed and the placement of the two humans in it and figured out where she was going to sit. Unlike the boys, she wanted to sit up. Hermione climbed onto the bed after setting her wand and holster on the bedside stand. She carefully settled herself up against the headboard with her feet going out in front of her. Sauron hissed a little and slithered up to loop himself around her foot, the weight of his body settling on her ankle before he curled back to la his head on the rest of his body, close to Harry's heart. Hermione tried not to react. She knew that she needed to get used to Sauron. He was a regular visitor to Draco.

Draco had told her and Harry that Sauron was not happy with Draco moving out of Spencer's Manor. If the snake had anything to say about it, Harry and Hermione would have moved in with Spencer instead of Draco moving out. Sauron was kind of adorable when he pouted. Harry reached up to pet at Sauron's head and let Sauron flick his tongue out all over his hand. Hermione looked at Draco with an eyebrow quirked. Harry seemed to be enthralled in Sauron. Draco nodded his head.

"Spencer got him the week after he was cleared by the Wizengamot, right?" Hermione asked as she reached down to pet Sauron's head a little.

"Yes, he talked Nibby into taking him to Japan to pick him up. Learned Japanese while Sauron was learning English to be able to give him instructions when Parseltongue was not something that he should use while in public." Draco slipped his hand down from Harry's hips and brushed down Sauron's body.

Hermione reached over and picked up the remote but just as she did a letter appeared on the bed with Draco's name on it.

"Charmed from the Bank," Draco said. He frowned as he picked it up. Hermione felt the magic of it and knew that whoever had sent it was powerful.

"That can't be good," Harry said before he yawned.

"No."

Hermione watched Draco's eyes as he read over the page. Draco's frown deepened as he got to the end. Draco looked at Hermione and handed it over.

"Sentencing was done in closed session with the Head of the DMLE and five random chosen Lords or Ladies. Ginny Weasley and Haley Brooks were sentenced to life in Azkaban with no hope of ever getting out. The Goblins are worried because Brooks' father is very upset about his daughter getting life in prison and he is blaming that on being lumped into the same hearing as Weasley."

"Yes well Roy Brooks is an idiot who thinks the sun shines out of his daughter arse," Harry said.

Hermione looked down at him in shock. Harry's eyes were closed, and his head was down on the pillow. Draco shook his head when Hermione opened her mouth.

"Why do you say that?" Draco asked.

"He stormed into the training room today. No one even questioned it, and he was part of why the other trainee was upset, and he blew up the glass. Brooks made it all the way across the room and backhanded me before anyone else could even react. I was talking to another trainee about things we wanted to try, and both of us were turned to the side. I was at the part farthest from the door that Brooks entered. We were run through the paces after that, and those that Brooks passed on the way to get to me had to run until the trainers felt better about them."

"Sounds like you had an all-around bad day today," Hermione said. She tossed the letter behind Draco on the bed and turned all of her attention to Harry. "Well, Libby is making finger foods so that Draco can feed you and even tiny treacle tarts so you can have your favourite."

"Libby's cooking is going to make me gain weight."

"Good," Hermione and Draco said at the same time. Harry laughed and opened his eyes. Hermione exhaled and pressed play. She heard the music start up in the movie and then Galadriel start to talk.

"Wait a second...is this that damned movie?" Draco asked.

Sauron hissed for nearly thirty seconds and turned his head to glare at Draco.

"Sauron is telling you to be quiet. There is no talking during movies," Harry translated.

Draco leaned over Harry's side and nipped at his ear. "I'll talk if I want."

"Then you can leave," Harry said with his tone serious even though his face was trying to split into a smile.

"Do I really have to watch a movie about a book that caused Spencer to name not only a snake after it but trees as well?"

"Yes," Harry and Hermione said at the same time. Sauron hissed something short, so Hermione assumed he was agreeing as well. Hermione wondered if she could learn Parseltongue so that she could understand him but figured that she probably never would be able to. It seemed more like a gift, much like Spencer's Eidetic memory was. Spencer had a lot of magical gifts, and at one point in her life, Hermione would have been jealous of that, but it set him so apart from the rest of the world. His memory, his reading speed, and his ability to speak to reptiles seemed like it was one thing that made it seem like he would never be happy. Hermione understood why Draco was so protective of him. Harry was apart from everyone else for his whole life, first with his Aunt and Uncle and then with the rest of the Wizarding World. She had the same kind of feeling of protectiveness for him that Draco had for Spencer.

There were few times that Hermione wondered about how life could have been if they had known that they were mates their first year at school. While it was nice to think of, there was no way of knowing what kind of damage that could have been made instead. There was no room for regret, so Hermione had to embrace what they had.

_October 29, 2000_

Harry sighed as he wrapped the towel he had been using to dry his hair around his neck. During the night his magic finally got rid of the spell resistance on the damned cuts all over his body and after a few sessions under Draco's wand and a potion to help his own immune system and healing ability, Harry was moving around well and had no pain left. The cuts all over his body were thin and white, almost like they had been there over a week instead of just over a day.

Draco and Hermione had said something about reading in the sitting room in the master wing, so he started toward that way after using the bathroom in the master wing to shower. Last night had been wonderful, even if a pouty Sauron had crashed the movie watching party. They had ended up watching two of the movies before they had all fallen asleep.

They had woken up tangled around each other with Hermione having laid down at some point. She had been on her stomach in front of Harry with Sauron stretched across all of their pillows to save himself from being squashed. Draco hadn't let go of Harry once.

Harry hated that Draco had entered the bathroom when he had. Harry has stripped off his clothes just inside the bathroom, and all of his underclothes had been covered in blood as the wounds were slow even to coagulate. Harry had Dobby go out and get him some super-glue which after showering Harry had slathered all over the cuts to help them not open up again. Harry had got all of the extra glue off in the shower using a mixture of elbow grease and magic.

The Elves were at Spencer's doing a joint discussion on what they wanted to do the next week in the castle. They were tackling it a room at a time as well as getting it all ready for there to be parties and shit. Harry wasn't sure what kind of party the Elves thought they were going to have in the castle but he didn't care as they decided between them what the decorations for each room were going to be. The Elves were also discussing what to do with each wing once the trio moved into the master wing. Harry knew that Teddy's room was being done in both wings and Dobby was popping back and forth to find what Teddy wanted for the room. There was no expense spared, and Harry dreaded asking who exactly was paying for it all because he was pretty sure that the Potter money wasn't being touched for it.

Draco was good at showing physical affection, but he also had learned at his father's hand that giving your spouse money to get what they want was a show of affection, thankfully during the one fight that the two of them had so far, Draco had not just shoved money at him. Draco had made Harry a snack and apologised while Harry had apologised as well. They had talked after, telling each other what had got them upset and just listened to each other. Hermione had stayed out of it, thankfully as Harry knew that she might have been tempted to be a mediator, but they had to learn to talk to each other without her a crutch. Sex was easy; the relationship was hard. Harry liked the sex part. The two of them had not had penetrative since the night they had both taken each other, but they had done their fair share of mutual hand jobs.

Harry got turned around on exactly where the damned sitting room was and found himself making a circle before he remembered where to turn to find it. The castle was more than Harry ever wanted to have to worry about but he understood why Draco had purchased it. The lands were more what he wanted, and the rooms would be nice when they were in a fight. They could take their time to calm down and not run into each other, even in the master wing.

Draco and Hermione were on an oversized couch that Hermione had near cooed over when Draco had shown it to them after Dobby had found it in France. There was a whole set of things in the sitting room that matched the couch and Harry really did like all of them. There were a few smaller things that would fit one or two, but most of the bits were for three, like the couch and a loveseat, and even three different chairs. It as a place for them to be them, a triad.

Harry had never thought that he would have one person who accepted him for who he was, but now he had two. Harry was pretty damned sure that Draco loved him and Harry kind of hated that he didn't return that emotion, but he knew that he would one day. Harry had known that Hermione loved him before they had known that Draco was their third. Draco's love felt different. Hermione was his best friend turned lover, spouse, hell everything to him. Draco was an enemy, and then a frenemy after the war was over. They were friendly to each other but still wary and not anywhere close to where they were. Draco was the rock that made Harry feel safe to let go and rail against what had been done to him. What two females had decided that they wanted his life to be and they set about doing it.

Draco had gone a little too far in the beginning on not making choices about everyday stupid things like dinner and such without Harry being enthusiastic about it. The only area that Harry cared about voicing his opinion on shit had to do with his own body and his autonomy.

Harry shook himself out of his memories to look at his two lovers who were stretched out on the couch. Draco had his legs propped on the coffee table that was in front of the couch. A book was hovering in front of him, and every time that he flicked his hand, a page turned. It was one of the displays of wandless magic that Harry adored to see Draco doing. It was simple, but it was nice. His hands were occupied with Hermione one rubbing up and down on her throat while the other was playing with her hair. Hermione was stretched out on the couch with her head in Draco's lap. She was holding a book in her hands and let it hang every time that she needed to turn a page. Harry watched them for a few minutes, neither noticing that he was standing there. Harry had plans, and those plans started with them noticing him and his lack of clothes.

Two more minutes went by before Harry cleared his throat. Hermione didn't look at him right away from Draco did, and it was a show of how shocked he was to see Harry parading around naked with a towel around his neck. As Draco raked his eyes over Harry's body, Harry felt his cock start to respond. Draco's eyes dropped to it, and the spell holding his book up faltered a little. Enough that Draco removed his hand from Hermione's neck to catch the book. That finally drew Hermione's gaze from her book and to Draco at least. Harry grinned as she tipped her head back to look at Draco before following his gaze. Hermione's book dropped to her chest when she realised that Harry was naked.

"Harry James, what the hell? What if one of the Elves sees you?"

"As if they haven't seen me bare arsed before. I'm sure that with three of us engaged in sex all over the place that it's bound to happen at some point." Harry shrugged. Between Dobby and Auror training where showers were snagged in a room that had about twenty guys in it, there was no room for body shyness. Though that Harry was at least bisexual had gained him a few looks in the weeks since the trial and the explosive outing of them as soulmates as well as married. Though it had allowed another lad in the younger group to come out as gay. Harry had watched as a few had stayed away from that trainee until they realised that looking at male bodies naked after a long assed day of training did not make the guy hard. Which had promoted a frank discussion of Harry asking the straight guys if every single female in the world made them hard, when they emphatically said no, Harry pointed out that the same was for gay or bisexual men. There was also the fact that if anyone really wanted to be sneaky about it, they wouldn't come out to the whole group.

There were eighteen females in the three-year spread of trainees, and they had their own locker room to change in. It was interesting to see the guys talking to them about the same things, how they would feel if a woman in their locker room was a lesbian. The females had all looked at them like they were too stupid to breathe air. The discussion had been tabled as done and things went back to normal.

"So who exactly are you looking at here?" Hermione asked when it seemed like she got her mouth to work.

"Both of you," Harry said before he turned around to start to walk to the bedroom. Harry walked as fast as he dared through the hall until he was in the anteroom for their shared bedroom. He wasn't ready to move in there but occasion nights with the two of them would be nice. The night before had been great and waking up like that had been perfect.

Harry sat down on the edge of the bed, he had already stripped it down to a sheet before he had gone to the bathroom to shower. Draco and Hermione were about a minute behind him, Draco following behind Hermione with a smirk on his face.

"You are looking a lot better. Less like we through into a pile of glass," Draco said, his eyes raking up and down Harry's body again. "It makes me want to do a lot of things to you."

"Then get naked and come up here and do them." Harry spread his legs and leaned back to rest of his arms, his hard cock on display. Draco really liked sucking Harry's cock but Harry was having slight issues trusting himself to do it to Draco, it would come with time just like everything else. "And get Hermione naked as well. I want her pretty pussy on my mouth."

Harry dropped back to lay flush on the bed. He didn't want to watch them strip, not this time. The bed dipped just seconds later meaning that Draco probably vanished their clothes. Harry didn't have it in him to yell at his lover, at his husband. It was still strange to think of Draco as a husband to anyone much less him, same with Hermione. But he wouldn't want to change a single aspect of their life at the moment. Things were hectic with them learning everything that they needed to learn to do what they wanted to do with their lives, but it would die down, and they could be together more, he just had to be patient. Harry liked the idea of something being with Hermione when he was gone for days at a time depending on what case he would be working when he was done with training at the end of the next year. He didn't have to worry about her being lonely. Draco and Hermione would miss him, but at least they wouldn't be alone.

Hermione climbed up Harry's body to straddle his chest at the same time that Harry felt hands grip his hips and pulled him down the bed just a little, enough to where Draco could get to his cock and his hole. Harry gasped as Draco took him all the way in his mouth with no hesitation. Before Harry had fully gasped, Hermione moved up to where her pussy was right there over his mouth. Harry grabbed her arse cheeks and pulled her down to where he could lick her. Harry had never much thought about what a woman's pussy should look like at all. He had thoughts when he had been in closets with Ginny in Hogwarts, but it never went beyond him wanting to slip his hands in her knickers.

Hermione grabbed the head of the bed, leaning over so she could actually reach it. It put her clit right to where Harry barely had to move to lick it. Spencer had been a wealth of information when it came to sex, or at least the books he owned were. Harry let of Hermione's arse and instead changed the position of his arms to where Harry could spread her pussy lips to get at her hole and clit better. Hermione gasped as she felt his rough fingers spreading her open for his mouth as well as his view if he so wanted.

"Oh, fuck, harry," Hermione gasped when Harry breached her hole with his tongue. She tasted wonderful to Harry, where Draco was kind of salty and strong she was soft and not quite sweet but something intoxicating. Harry was so focused on her that he missed when Draco had gone from just sucking his cock to relaxing his hole as well. Harry jumped a little when the fingers breached him. He moaned into Hermione's body, making her shiver in pleasure. "Whatever you just did, Draco do it again. He really liked it."

Draco chuckled, the sound muffled by the cock in his mouth but Draco repeated what he did, going right for Harry's prostate. Harry kept on working Hermione until she came, her juices flowing enough for him to know that she was ready for whatever Harry wants Draco to do to her. Harry had the picture in his mind, and he wanted to recreate it.

Harry pulled off of her pussy and inhaled deeply. Hermione smelled aroused, and it was a lovely scent.

"I want you to lay with your head on the pillows, Hermione," Harry said before he gave her one last lick from hole to clit. Hermione shuddered like she was trying to keep an orgasm at bay. Hermione nodded, biting her lips. Hermione rolled to the side to allow Harry to sit up and grab Draco's hair to pull him up and kiss him. He could taste himself in Draco's mouth, and Draco was sure to be able to taste Hermione in his.

"And what do you want me to do, Lord Potter?" Draco asked in a slightly snotty tone. Harry at one point would have become defensive, but right now Draco was doing it playfully, if the smile on his face was any indication.

"I want you to get up there and fuck our lady. I want to watch you for a few minutes, get her all nice and stretched out. Make her ache for your cock."

Draco stood up and waited for Harry to get off the bed before he crawled back on. Hermione was laying with her legs spread, she was wet, and it wouldn't really take much for her to take Draco the way that Harry wanted. As far as Harry was aware sex between Hermione and Draco had all been in the missionary position. Harry crawled up onto the bed and settled on his knees behind Draco. Harry laid his hands on Draco's back and let them slide down to where he was bracing them on his back as Draco breached Hermione. The look on her face was ecstatic as she went from empty to full with one slide of his cock. Draco stayed up on his knees, holding Hermione up by her waist to get the penetration that he wanted.

Harry conjured lube with an uttered word into the hand he pulled off of Draco and Draco shuddered at it.

"You are a tease," Draco muttered.

"Why?"

"Doing that where I can't see."

"Hermione, open your eyes and look at Draco," Harry commanded. Hermione's eyes fluttered open, and she looked. "But who said that I am preparing myself, Draco?"

"Bloody hell," Draco said as Harry used his unlubed hand to spread Draco's arse cheeks enough to where he could slip a finger inside of him. "Lord Potter is going to try and kill me, Hermione."

"You only call me that when you are trying to get a reaction. I'd much rather get a reaction from you." Harry pulled his finger free and pushed back in with two. "Don't you want to fuck her and have me fuck you at the same time?"

"Yes," Hermione answered before Draco could say anything.

"Well, our lady has put in her vote, so it's two. Why don't you make it unanimous?"

"You are an utter wretch. Do it."

"Before we get that far though, I don't exactly think that this is the best position for our first time of doing this. Hermione love, get on your hands and knees."

"Fuck," Draco said, and he pushed back out of Hermione, his hand gripping the base of his cock. Draco said something, and then his face relaxed some. Harry could only see the side of his face, but he assumed that Draco had cast the cock ring spell. Harry didn't begrudge him casting the spell. He would be the most stimulated, and it would be much harder for him to actually not come as soon as Harry started to fuck him.

There were no words as Harry finished prepping Draco, playing more than anything else. The lube was everywhere on Draco's ass, but Draco was barely paying attention. His full attention was on Hermione who was her hands and knees, and she was backed all the way to where Draco's cock was rubbing up and down her slit. It would take little for him to actually breach her.

"You know you want it," Harry uttered into Draco's ear.

Draco grabbed Hermione's hips with one hand and used his other to hold his cock steady as he slowly breached her. Hermione's head dropped down between her shoulders, and she was shuddering at the feel of the new stretch of her pussy. Draco's hand slid up from her hip up her spine to settle on her shoulder as he bottomed out inside of her.

"You two are beautiful like this," Harry said just loud enough for Hermione to hear. Draco's head fell back on Harry's shoulder. "I could watch you too have sex for hours."

"You could also stick your cock inside of me and fuck me while watching us fuck."

"Bossy," Harry said, but he agreed with Draco's words. Harry conjured more lube and slicked up his cock before starting to push inside of his lover. Draco stilled with his cock fully inside of Hermione, making Harry scoot up just a little to be able to get all of the way inside of Draco.

Draco shuddered as Harry bottomed out in him. Harry hooked an arm around Draco's waist to hold him still.

"How does it feel?" Harry asked.

"Good. Too good. I have no words," Draco said.

"Make some up," Harry ordered. He wiped his lubed up hand on the bedsheet. He had plans for the three of them, and the Elves would have time to clean up some in the room before they were back into it.

Draco laughed, and his body relaxed. Harry felt the flash around his cock lessen its grip on him. Harry scooted back to allow Draco room to move. Draco used his grip on Hermione's shoulder to pull her back on him as he pulled out and thrust back in. It took a few thrusts before the two of them were in a good rhythm and that was when Harry started to find his rhythm as well, bottoming out as Draco had Hermione pressed flush against him. Hermione wasn't silent, gasping with the strength of Draco's thrusts inside of her as well as how hard he was pulling on her. Her whole shuddered as she came. Draco grunted as he stilled in her. Harry felt no clenching, so he knew that Draco hadn't come as well.

Hermione flopped onto her stomach, her knees giving out. Harry used his arm around Draco to hold him in place to stop him from following her down. Hermione rolled onto her back and laid her legs on either side of Draco. She was breathing hard, her hair plastered to her forehead by sweat. Draco grabbed her hips and pulled her down to him. He pulled on her until she was angled up his legs. Harry tipped his head to where he could see over Draco's shoulder to see what Draco was doing.

Draco slipped his cock to where it was lying across Hermione's pussy. Draco grinned and wiped his hand on Hermione's inner thighs. Harry laughed when he saw that lube was left behind. Harry watched as Draco grabbed Hermione's thighs and picked them. Hermione moaned as Draco started to rub his cock up and down across Hermione's slit. He socked a little n harry's cock as well. Draco closed Hermione' thighs.

Harry leaned back, and Draco draped Hermione's legs over his shoulders. Harry nipped at the skin of her calf as it settled over both of their shoulders. Draco held Hermione steady using her lubed thighs to rub his cock between. He had to be rubbing his cock against her clit as well because Hermione looked like she was racing to another orgasm. Hermione looked so lost in the pleasure that she was getting that Harry wasn't focusing on himself. His orgasm shocked him. Harry barely had time to pull Draco back onto his cock before the first wave hit him. Harry gasped and turned his head down to muffle the sound in Draco's skin. It was too much.

There was no time to recover before Draco was moving. Hermione made a sound of displeasure as Draco left the area between them. Draco pushed on Harry's shoulder and tipped him over to land on top of Hermione. Harry barely got his hands down to make sure that he didn't fall all the way down onto her.

"What was the phrase from that talking crab? Kiss the girl?" Draco said.

Harry laughed, but he looked down at Hermione. Harry slipped one of his arms under Hermione's head and brought her lips up to where he could kiss them ease. Harry felt his cock twitch as Hermione thrust up into him, but there was no more to give from him on that front. Hermione laughed a little and reached up to grip his arse and pull him up her body a little. Harry kept on kissing her and trying to focus on what he was doing and not the noises he was hearing from behind him. Draco had not got off yet, but Harry trusted that Draco wasn't going to just let it all go.

Draco settled himself in behind Harry, and there was a sweep of a cleaning spell over Harry's body, centring on his cock just as two fingers breached Harry's arse hole.

"Fuck," Harry uttered as he pulled out of Hermione's mouth. Another hand slipped down and started to stroke Harry's cock.

"Don't you want another cock in you, Hermione?" Draco asked.

"Yes," Hermione moaned as she spread her legs a little to allow Harry's hips to drop down some.

Harry's cock was responding like he hadn't just come. He was hard in what felt like seconds, and then Draco was guiding him into Hermione. Draco held onto Harry's hips not allowing Harry to move at all.

"Control freak," Harry uttered, wanting to thrust into Hermione. To have her wrapped around his cock but not be able to move was like torture. Draco pushed into Harry with ease, a testament to how relaxed he was and how lubed up Draco's cock was. Draco buried himself all the way in and kept on pushing, guiding Harry into Hermione.

"How's that feel?" Draco asked.

"Like you are enjoying fucking both of us, just using me to actually fuck her." Harry laughed and pressed his mouth back to Hermione's before Draco could respond. Hermione wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and held him in place while she took control of the kiss. Harry was lost in pleasure. He wasn't in control of fucking Hermione or in the kiss he was giving Hermione. He should feel out of sorts, having no control over what they were doing but he didn't. He felt loved and cherished.

Harry let himself get lost in the control that he was giving up to the two people that he trusted most in the world. He wasn't sure how long they were like that with Draco in control, but Harry didn't care how long it was. Hermione came first, clenching around Harry's cock so tight that it felt like a vice, that tipped Harry over, and he dropped down because his legs wouldn't hold him up anymore, even with Draco holding onto his hips. Draco crashed into Harry's back, cock sliding in all the way and Harry shuddered as it raked over his prostate setting off another rush of release from Harry's cock.

Draco plastered himself on Harry's back a hand on the bed at Harry's neck, tangled in Hermione's hair as he chased his orgasm. Harry felt his cock slip from inside of Hermione and could do little except try and push up to not crush her. Hermione wrapped her legs around the both of them though and kept Harry where he was. She grabbed the back of Harry's head and kissed him so hard that their teeth clinked. Draco was thrusting hard and fast into Harry, tipping Harry further and further into oversensitivity but he didn't want Draco to stop, it felt too good. That Draco wanted him that much. Draco stilled, his hips flush with Harry's arse. Draco bit at Harry's shoulder, teeth clenching around his skin as he came. Harry came a little bit again from the pain that raced through his body.

Harry was unable to fight Draco's hands as Draco pulled him off of Hermione and onto his side. Draco wrapped himself around Harry like an octopus. Harry threw his arm and a leg over Hermione so that she didn't feel left out. Harry felt boneless in a way that he had never felt before, and it felt damned good.

No words were shared, and Harry was pretty sure that they all fell asleep for a little while. When Harry opened his eyes again, he looked around, and the sun was in a much lower position. There was a warming charm on the bed that didn't feel like it was cast by Draco or Hermione, so it had to have been one of the Elves. Harry rolled his shoulder as he felt the after-effects of a lengthy bout of sex with two other people. Draco's bite mark throbbed a little, but it was too high for Harry to be able to see it without a mirror. Harry kind of liked it, that Draco wanted him so much and was so overcome that he bit Harry.

Harry had no knowledge depth for a want like that. He thankfully had never seen his aunt and uncle act like that with each other, and he had been around no one else who was in a relationship as a child. Draco and Hermione would have to teach him about love and everything that went with it. Despite everything that had happened between Harry and Draco when they were children, Harry trusted him. Draco had opened himself up to so much hurt when he had exposed himself to them. Sitting down at that table in the middle of the mess at Ministry where all of the trainees ate was brave, a Gryffindor move more than a Slytherin one. It was hard not to see that Draco had given up a great deal in showing his hand. They could have both rejected him, and he would have been unable to do anything to prove to them that he wasn't fucking with them.

"We are going to stick together," Harry said with a smile as Draco's breathing against his neck changed. Draco rubbed his face across Harry's skin and pulled Harry tighter into him.

"Five more minutes," Draco and Hermione said at the same time. Harry laughed but let them have their cuddle time. He could sacrifice a few minutes to give them what they wanted, always for them. It was the nature of soulmates and Harry was already looking forward to their life that was stretched out ahead of them.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> Sign-ups for authors and artists have begun for Every Fandom Big Bang, which accepts pairings from any fandom! Our motto is "Your fandom fits our bang!" The story minimum word count is only 5K with no max. For more information or to sign up go to [Every Fandom Big Bang](https://everyfandombangs.wordpress.com) on WordPress. Stories can be posted here. So, if you don't have a WordPress account, it's not a big deal. Sign-up ends at the end of September!


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